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Antonal Telthin died as he lived – alone. His sprawling manor lay empty at the edge of the village of Hallowfeld for many years until a famous bard moved to town. Sophia Lasilaran chose Telthin Manor as her home because of its remote location, hoping it would give her a relaxing place to work. Little did she know that Telthin's legacy waited, patient but potent, in the basement below, and that on the night she discovered the hidden chamber her life would change forever.
The planet Triaxus, whose eccentric orbit slingshots it around the sun and skirts the edge of the solar system, is entering its sweltering summer. As glaciers melt and ecosystems shift, a cosmic horror is discovered, and a band of four heroes must step up to prevent apocalypse.
I am opening recruitment for a short adventure designed for four 9th-level PCs, set on the planet of Triaxus in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting. This adventure, “And Madness Followed,” was originally published in Dungeon Issue #134. Triaxus info is taken from articles in Pathfinder Adventure Path #14 and #70.
Submissions will close 24 hours after the sixth application. At that time, I will select four people from the pool and open the discussion thread. It is okay to post only a short character concept and a bit of backstory – you will have time to finish working on your character if selected.
The starting location will be the small town of Lamid in the Kingdom of Aylok, which is a member of the expansive Allied Territories. These territories occupy the entire continent Ora, having banded together long ago to defend themselves from the north-western Drakelands. Lamid sits at the mouth of the Eyefjell Valley, where the Upper Rime River joins Gora Creek and runs south to the port city of Indar. North along the Upper Rime are the villages of Kiltar, Forestdal, Hallowfeld, and Glacier, each at higher and higher elevations in the Mountains of Luz. East around the Luz Peninsula is the free city Preita, renowned for its vast stores of knowledge. Lastly, to the west lie the Great Plains of Aylok and the capital of the kingdom itself.
- You have the option of rolling 3d6 straight down or 15-point buy. You may roll before deciding which to use.
- Characters should be level 9 (including CR of base monster, if applicable). We will be starting at 50000 XP and using the Fast experience track, though it is unlikely that anyone will level up over the course of this adventure.
- Any class is suitable for this adventure.
- Suitable races for this adventure include dragonkin, dragons, elves, gnomes, laialar*, ottiks**, poet-whales**, sky-priests**, and triaxians (transitional or summer-born). Other races may be suitable, but you'll need a reason for them to be on Triaxus and interested in the well-being of this planet. Races with racial hit dice use the rules in “Appendix 4: Monsters as PCs” on page 314 of the Bestiary; you may switch out racial HD skills and feats for ones more appropriate to your character.
*Homebrew stats given below. **No stats available yet. If you want to play one, post your ideas about the race and we'll try to work it out.
- Hit points are maximum for the first hit die, even for monstrous races. For subsequent hit dice you can either take the average (8d8, for example, becomes 36) or roll in your first post with your alias.
- You may choose one trait, or three if you take the Extra Traits feat.
- All alignments and Pathfinder religions are suitable for this adventure, but nihilist or chaotic evil characters must have a reason to help prevent an apocalypse. Common religions in Aylok include worship of Abadar, Apsu, Asmodeus, Calistria, Dahak, Desna, Erastil, Gozreh, Nethys, Pharasma, Shelyn, and the demigods of various extraplanar realms. There are also an unknown number of local Triaxian deities; feel free to invent ones you think appropriate to the culture.
- Triaxus has two major languages: The language of the native triaxian humanoids, called Triaxian, Common, or Triaxian Common, and the language of dragons and dragonkin, called Draconic. Other languages that a native might know include Adlet, Aklo, Elven, and Gnome, along with the multitude of extraplanar languages.
- Equipment is largely the same between the two planets. Feel free to create Triaxian variants if an item seems like it wouldn't fit in the setting.
- Starting WBL for a 9th-level character is 46000 gp. You cannot spend more than half of this on any one item.
- Triaxus at the time of this game uses the Emerging Guns rules set.
- For races without height/weight and aging tables, you can just pick statistics that sound reasonable. For races with those tables, you can pick statistics within the possible ranges of those tables, or roll.
- Please include at least a sentence of backstory in your final submission.
- If you have any issues reconciling the Triaxian lore with mechanics in the Core Rulebook and other sources, let me know and we should be able to work out something more appropriate to the world.
I plan to use Google Drawings for maps. If everyone in the party is willing to use roll20, we can use that instead. To make your movement more obvious to me, draw an arrow from your initial to your final position, and delete that arrow some time before your next turn to prevent clutter.
Combat will proceed through the following steps: 1) Opposed Perception/Stealth checks, if applicable, are made. Surprised parties are identified. 2) I roll initiative for each individual creature and rank the rolls. 3) Surprise round occurs. I will wait for PCs to act in the surprise round, but no more than 24 hours after they are prompted to act. 4) Normal initiative begins. Again, I will wait for PCs to act for up to 24 hours. 5) Combat ends.
At any time anyone may post advance actions for as far ahead as they want and with as many conditions as they want, and I will try to NPC those actions exactly as stated. If you miss the 24-hour mark, I will try to NPC you with an action that consumes minimal resources and doesn't put your character in greater risk, and then move on to people lower in initiative. With advance warning, the 24-hour cutoff can be extended.
- Turn Undead can synergize with Alignment Channel or Elemental Channel, effectively creating Turn Outsiders (subtype).
- For percentage rolls, high is good for PCs, low is bad for PCs.
- The DC to identify that an invisible creature is present is equal to the creature’s Stealth check, without bonuses from invisibility. Any invisible creature moving adjacent without Stealth allows an automatic Perception check (DC 20) to pinpoint its location.
- Greater Feint denies the opponent their Dexterity bonus to AC against all attacks, not just your own.
- The falling rules in Environment take precedence over those in Acrobatics.
- We will use the “Sanity and Madness” rules in the GameMastery Guide. These conditions result primarily from psychic shock and magical trauma, and since permanent mental disorders by similar names exist, I have renamed the following: “mania” to “philia,” “multiple personality disorder” to “spirit-ridden” (where the spirits took advantage of the character's weakness and were able to possess it), “psychosis” to “amuk,” and “schizophrenia” to “palinopsia.”
- Experience is awarded whenever a creature is slain; I will track each party members' experience in the Campaign Info tab. If you gain enough experience to level up during a fight, you can do so in the middle of that fight, or wait until you have time to do so. Characters will only get experience for fights they are present for; additionally, if an NPC or allied monster assists you in a fight, the XP will be divided between both PCs and that NPC.
Laialar have no permanent culture of their own – in each autumn, a powerful instinct compels them to migrate to the poles and lay hundreds of eggs, after which they die. In each Time of Floods, rubbery laialar eggs thaw and hatch, and the lizard-like young gorge on arthropods and small mammals as the tundra bursts into life. The young fledge as they grow, eventually resembling scaled, ungainly birds, and begin flying to the equator. The laialar memorize the flight path with cues from their light-sensitive third eye, and it is this memorization that triggers a burst of sapience in the adolescent laialar's mind. By the time a laialar reaches the equatorial region (a leisurely journey taking approximately a year), it is the intellectual equivalent of a two-year-old human.
In the equatorial region, the adolescent laialar congregate in young forests, roosting together and hunting together with increasingly cunning tactics. As they mature and the summer canopy grows denser, the flocks take more often to chasing their prey on foot; as their feathers molt off, they wield primitive wooden clubs and spears in their newly available wingtip claws.
The halfling-sized young laialar are secretive around most creatures larger than them, but are possessed with a penchant for spying and a high-fidelity memory. When a triaxian caravan drives through a jungle, it typically passes on at least a dozen useful phrases to a listening laialar, who then repeats those phrases to their flock. Over the course of 10-20 years, a laialar flock assembles a formidable pidgin from Draconic, Triaxian, and an assortment of instinctual whistles and shrieks.
As the decades pass, some bold laialar leave the flock. Depending on the kind of settlement they enter, these laialar may be enrolled in education, given work, or outright slain. If the prevailing culture is progressive, many of these adventurous laialar will return to their flocks and teach them the culture's language, magic, and crafting techniques. If the prevailing culture is cruel, few laialar will return to the flock, and those that do will warn off future exploration.
As the summer wanes, laialar frequently seek out mates. Through a process not worthy of detail, each member of the pair is able to fertilize its eggs before Portent begins. When autumn does eventually fall, the laialar's wings begin to refeather and it feels compelled to fatten up and eventually fly back to the pole by the path it first took as an adolescent. Some laialar ignore these urges, but as the light fades their body deteriorates; no laialar has lived more than three years into winter without powerful magic.
An individual laialar's cultural experience has extreme variation. Some laialar, living on isolated islands or in remote wilderness regions, go their whole lives without learning a smidgeon of Triaxian or Draconic and manifest a kind of hyperperceptive magic with the aid of their third eye. Some laialar lost their flocks to war or natural disaster, and have adjusted to life in a settlement or have set off to roam the world alone. Other laialar simply left their flocks and never looked back.
Physiology: An adult laialar stands between three and four feet high and has mottled green scales. Its eyebrows are heavily ridged, with a small spined crest going down from the base of its skull, and its two front eyes are black. The third eye, which is usually white or yellow, is just above and between the eyebrow ridges.
The wings of an adult rarely bear any feathers, but are well-muscled and end in a pair of grasping claws and an opposable thumb. An adult's torso leans forward, balancing the body on thin, sinewy legs, each ending in four blunt-taloned toes. The neck spines continue all the way down to the end of the laialar's short, tapered tail.
Laialar have only one physical sex, and are able to both fertilize and lay eggs. They may have any gender, but it is commonest for them to feel affiliation with neither masculinity nor femininity, or with both. Laialar living in Ning sometimes identify with the androgynous ukara, though none have ever actually become Battleflowers.
Personality: Laialar occupy a full range of humanoid personalities, with three commonalities. Firstly, the reptilians often tend to shyness, and will only contribute to a conversation when they think they have something very important to say. Secondly, those living away from other laialar for long periods grow jaded or apathetic; especially as the light fades, these laialar feel cut off from the world, and may behave erratically. Lastly, laialar who know of their species' natural history are unusually cavalier about their fates. They are excited about retracing their first flight, which most laialar remember as a sublime, joyous experience.
Alignment and Religion: Laialar tend to be more chaotic than triaxians, having acted on instinct for a good portion of their lives. They have no particular predilection on the morality axis; some laialar value the lives of other intelligent beings, seeing them just as the flock they grew up with, but other laialar are bitter or xenophobic, seeing dragons and humanoids only as prey that is too large to take down.
Laialar who come into contact with other cultures often take on the pantheons of those cultures; thusly laialar in the Drakelands may worship Apsu or Dahak or another minor draconic deity, while laialar in the triaxian-dominated continents are more likely to worship mainstays like Asmodeus, Desna, and Pharasma. If a laialar is friends with an elf, gnome, or season keeper (Triaxian druid), it may choose a deity such as Findleadlara, Ketephys, Nivi Rhombodazzle, or Gozreh.
Laialar with no contact outside their flock may instead look to the natural divinity in the world, focusing their third eye with an ascetism rarely seen outside a monastery. Meditating over fresh kills, they contemplate their world's path around the sun, and can sometimes catch glimpses of their world's past and future.
Relations: Forest-dwelling races like elves and gnomes are sometimes the first friends a laialar flock ever makes. These humanoids, sharing a distaste for civilization and its confusing laws, often lend their experience and tools to the learning young adults.
Green dragons variously see laialar as vermin to be eradicated, subjects to be conscripted, or, rarely, as children to be taught. A few laialar do work out a beneficial arrangement with these creatures, but generally they avoid all true dragons.
Summer-born triaxians and dragonkin of the Allied Territories often trade with matured laialar flocks, and many season keepers form stong bonds with the small humanoids. Some dragonkin take laialar as riders. However, ignorant triaxians and dragonkin in the Drakelands are also known to hunt laialar for food and sport, seeing the small creatures as no different from animals.
Adventurers: The most common adventuring laialar is one who has lost its flock. Displaced, and often tormented by loneliness, these laialar itch for the opportunity to hunt in a pack again and the chance of financial security for the rest of their lives. As the Portent approaches, single laialar also feel compelled to seek out mates, which leads them naturally to a nomadic lifestyle.
If a laialar still has a flock, it may venture out into the world just to learn more to bring back. These trips can last years and the laialar's quest for understanding may put it in danger, but bringing home powerful magic and technology will ensure their flock's safety until migration. As it is still early in the season, currently most adventuring laialar hail from such young flocks.
Names: A laialar is just as likely to be named after a general as after a flower; however, where this adventure takes place, the local flock has a few conventions. The Eyebite, as the flock is known, use single syllables to call on each other. These syllables often end with a -t or -k and are said as quickly as possible.
Examples: Et, Cac, Hok, Lat, Hig, Queph, Suk, Tret, Tust, Ull, Veck.
+2 Dexterity, +2 Wisdom, -2 Strength: Laialar are not as strong as larger humanoids, but move with precision and are closely connected to the rhythms of nature.
Small: Laialar are Small creatures and gain a +1 size bonus to their AC, a +1 size bonus on attack rolls, a –1 penalty to their Combat Maneuver Bonus and Combat Maneuver Defense, and a +4 size bonus on Stealth checks.
Slow Speed: Laialar have a base speed of 20 feet.
Bond to the Land: Laialar gain a +2 dodge bonus to AC when in forested terrain. They also gain a +4 bonus on Stealth checks in forests.
Celestial Alertness: A laialar's upward-facing third eye grants it a wide visual field. It gains a +2 racial bonus on all Perception checks.
Light Sense: The third eye's primary purpose is navigational. A laialar who spends at least an hour outdoors can determine both the day of the cycle and the linear distance to the equator (in hundreds of miles).
Bite: Laialar gain a natural bite attack, dealing 1d2 damage on a successful hit. The bite is a primary attack, or a secondary attack if the creature is wielding manufactured weapons. If the laialar gets a bite attack from some other source, that attack is one damage die higher than normal.
Languages: Lailar begin play speaking any one language of the player's choosing (excluding secret languages, like Druidic), along with their flock's pidgin, if it had one. Laialar with high Intelligence scores can choose from the following: Abyssal, Celestial, Draconic, Elven, Gnome, and Triaxian Common.
I tried to cover the basics, but I could think of a hundred questions not covered by this post. If you have any, ask away!
Just to be clear, this is a one shot? If so, is there any chance of continuation? Lastly, what about 3pp? I do not have anything specifically in mind yet.
I might want to put something together, but I have a few questions.
1. Dragonkin have 10 racial HD. They won't techincally fit in the guidelines for 9th level characters. Is there a powered down version you were thinking of using?
2. Do Dragon-blooded Triaxians have different statistics?
5. How would you work the statistics of a monstrous character like a dragon? Still 15 point buy with odd racial bonuses or as seen in the bestiary?
Suitable races for this adventure include dragonkin, dragons <...>
Draconic dot.
I've read all the links in the OP, but information is lacking. Is there a book on Triaxus?How do dragons fit in this module? I think chromatic ones are not very welcome in Allied Territories?
How are ability scores of monster PCs calculated, subtract 10 or 11 and use it as racial modifier?
Is Path of War allowed?
Build idea is dragon8/initiator1 as a front liner. I've found one good and one evil large dragon with CR8 that can serve as companion and mount for another character, and few medium ones.
I can manage two posts per day, but I'm in GMT+4 timezone.
Edit:
We will use the “Sanity and Madness” rules in the GameMastery Guide.
You mean "At your option, a creature can run the risk of going insane under extremely unusual situations, even when his mental ability scores are unharmed." option?
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I might want to put something together, but I have a few questions.
1. Dragonkin have 10 racial HD. They won't techincally fit in the guidelines for 9th level characters. Is there a powered down version you were thinking of using?
2. Do Dragon-blooded Triaxians have different statistics?
5. How would you work the statistics of a monstrous character like a dragon? Still 15 point buy with odd racial bonuses or as seen in the bestiary?
1. They're CR 9, so using the "Monsters as PCs" rules they're still an option, as long as you're okay without class levels. I thought about basing it off HD but it gets pretty swingy.
2. They may have different statistics, but no one has actually made statistics for them, to my knowledge. You could assume they have the same statistics but a greater predilection for sorcery, or you could alter the base racial traits to get something that fits. (E.g. change bonus feat to an energy resistance and a spell-like ability, or something.)
5. You still get point buy, but there shouldn't be odd racial bonuses. Odd scores are assumed to have started at 11, while even scores are assumed to have started at 10. (Also you won't get extra ability score increases from those HD, though class HD stack with racial HD for determining any further increases.)
I've read all the links in the OP, but information is lacking. Is there a book on Triaxus?
There is no single book, unfortunately. The Frozen Stars (AP #70) has ca. 16 pages of world information, which is mostly what I've been going on. Distant Worlds has four pages, according to my sources, but I do not own it. I'll type up a more detailed summary of the Frozen Stars information later today.
The information is pretty lacking, though, yeah - admittedly I chose Triaxus as a setting because there's not as much lore for me to screw up. This also means you all can play around a bit more with concepts.
How do dragons fit in this module? I think chromatic ones are not very welcome in Allied Territories?
Unfortunately yeah, they are not very welcome. A chromatic dragon who follows the way of its kin would need a strong reason to be a member of an adventuring party and want to prevent an apocalypse in territories outside the Drakelands. A chromatic dragon who is an established do-gooder and member of a team of heroes would still be hated by some of the locals, but would not face significant sanctions during the course of the adventure.
Metallic dragons may still be viewed with distrust by the more ignorant, but it is well known that many of them helped stop the flood of the Drakelands in the War of Heroes, and many Aylish see them as allies.
How are ability scores of monster PCs calculated, subtract 10 or 11 and use it as racial modifier?That's right! Sorry I didn't make that clearer.
Is Path of War allowed?Yes!
Build idea is dragon8/initiator1 as a front liner. I've found one good and one evil large dragon with CR8 that can serve as companion and mount for another character, and few medium ones.
I can manage two posts per day, but I'm in GMT+4 timezone.
The young brass and brine dragons are CR 7 though, right? Either way, yes those are all doable.
I'm in GMT-8 so we're basically on opposite sides of the world . . . We ought to have at least a couple hours in common every morning/evening, though.
We will use the “Sanity and Madness” rules in the GameMastery Guide.You mean "At your option, a creature can run the risk of going insane under extremely unusual situations, even when his mental ability scores are unharmed." option?
I will not be using that option! However, I will be using the normal "Every time a creature is reduced to a score of 0 in one of these scores . . ." rule, and casters of insanity spells may choose to inflict one of the conditions in Sanity and Madness rather than permanent confusion.
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I have an idea for an impossible thief character, would you allow a quickling (CR 2 small sized fey)
Follow up question: would you allow one to be modified to be medium (I don't like playing as small, yes I know mechanically I'd be better off small but it's more difficult for me to get in character when they're small, for some reason I can play small non humanoids just fine though)
Not a deal breaker but would be nice
I also think it would be cool to be a rider for one of the dragons, and I have a few ideas for how we could have met though I think being one would suck because there are very limited options for making such a character your own when they're already most or all built, now if we were playing gestalt that'd be different.
As for time zone, I'm eastern time zone but I'm night shift.
as for post rate, I counted it out recently and apparently I average about 20 per day, though that's divided amongst a number
Can we use the race builder? If so, how many points? Since monsterous races are allowed, im guessing more than 20?
small sized fey
I also think it would be cool to be a rider for one of the dragons
Are these fey of mischievous variety? Because young copper dragon is Medium and CR8.
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I have an idea for an impossible thief character, would you allow a quickling (CR 2 small sized fey)
Follow up question: would you allow one to be modified to be medium (I don't like playing as small, yes I know mechanically I'd be better off small but it's more difficult for me to get in character when they're small, for some reason I can play small non humanoids just fine though)
Not a deal breaker but would be nice
I also think it would be cool to be a rider for one of the dragons, and I have a few ideas for how we could have met though I think being one would suck because there are very limited options for making such a character your own when they're already most or all built, now if we were playing gestalt that'd be different.
As for time zone, I'm eastern time zone but I'm night shift.
as for post rate, I counted it out recently and apparently I average about 20 per day, though that's divided amongst a number
Yes, quicklings are permissible (and Medium ones as well). I forgot to note, fey and outsiders are pretty much universal, at least between Triaxus and Golarion, because they all come from extraplanar realms.
Quicklings look extremely misanthropic (misdraconic?), though - could you go into detail about how yours would have befriended a dragon? Would they just be an extraordinary member of their species?
Edit:
Can we use the race builder? If so, how many points? Since monsterous races are allowed, im guessing more than 20?
Actually, I'd say 15 would be the cap. There aren't any exceptional 0-HD creatures that I know to exist on Triaxus - triaxians are 10 RP, elves and gnomes are standard, and laialar are somewhere between 8 and 13 RP. Monsters with racial hit dice are accounted for with the CR system.
But yes, you can use the race builder. The "cave-carving ottiks," "vampiric hordes of the Uchorae" (a jungle in the heart of the continent, near the wealthy high-walled city of Kamora), and "serpentine sky-priests whose veins literally flow with divine power" could all make for suitable 0-HD races, or you can make up something entirely new.
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so no monstrous race builder. okay :) Will see what i cvan come up with in the morning. 12:30am here. might go with a basic race.. maybe ;) but with almost everyone going with monster races about... will see ;) =^^=
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@Nyaa: yes, quite mischievous
@the GM: cool,
as a PC, I'd think "exceptional" was to a greater or lesser extent the default, but I was thinking that my character (Sam Starfield, I'm thinking for a name) was hired to steel a few pieces of cargo without asking what it was, normally he didn't care, so long as he got paid
When he got to it he found a young dragon and a small cash of eggs
He was horrified
He rescued the dragon and eggs and cut ties with his contact
When later asked why he didn't transport the cargo he responded with
"People ain't cargo, mate. They ain't weapons, they ain't f*%&ing objects,"
[ooc]for inspiration I took three other thieves and scoundrels, all three of which happen to captain a ship, captain jack sparrow, captain Malcolm Renalds, and Captain Sam Starfield)
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@Nyaa: yes, quite mischievous
@the GM: cool,
as a PC, I'd think "exceptional" was to a greater or lesser extent the default, but I was thinking that my character (Sam Starfield, I'm thinking for a name) was hired to steel a few pieces of cargo without asking what it was, normally he didn't care, so long as he got paid
When he got to it he found a young dragon and a small cash of eggs
He was horrified
He rescued the dragon and eggs and cut ties with his contact
When later asked why he didn't transport the cargo he responded with
"People ain't cargo, mate. They ain't weapons, they ain't f$!$ing objects,"
[ooc]for inspiration I took three other thieves and scoundrels, all three of which happen to captain a ship, captain jack sparrow, captain Malcolm Renalds, and Captain Sam Starfield)
Sounds good, Lord Foul. If those were metallic dragons, it could make a lot of sense for your character to have been working for some chromatic agent in the Drakelands. Several warlords there might use eggs as components for horrible spells, or even hope to raise a metallic dragon as an evil creature. Or if it's a chromatic dragon, maybe someone in some corrupt humanoid nation wanted to build an exotic menagerie.
Would that have been the moment where Sam first felt empathy for another creature (bonding the same way riders do to dragonkin), or has he always been unusual that way? Perhaps he's just similar to other quicklings, but really more of a separate species?
Well, I'd like to play a Half-dragon.
Specifically, I'd like to go early entry Eldritch Knight but this would mean playing a Half-Dragon/Aasimaar, which is a bit cheesy. If this is too cheesy, I will think of something else.
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Well, I'd like to play a Half-dragon.
Specifically, I'd like to go early entry Eldritch Knight but this would mean playing a Half-Dragon/Aasimaar, which is a bit cheesy. If this is too cheesy, I will think of something else.
Nah, not too cheesy.
For templates on 0 HD creatures, though, I think it's best to still factor in the CR. So a half-dragon aasimar would get 7 class levels at the start of the game. (CR 1/2 aasimar with one level in PC class gets bumped up to CR 3 by half-dragon template, then gets six more levels from PC classes.)
Appearance-wise, is this an aasimar descended from triaxians, elves, or something else?
'Race points'; aren't Aasimar 17 RP or something?
For templates on 0 HD creatures, though, I think it's best to still factor in the CR. So a half-dragon aasimar would get 7 class levels at the start of the game. (CR 1/2 aasimar with one level in PC class gets bumped up to CR 3 by half-dragon template, then gets six more levels from PC classes.)
Appearance-wise, is this an aasimar descended from triaxians, elves, or something else?
Not sure where you get the CR3 from; in 3.5 all player races were CR1/2, and nothing has changed as far as I can see in Pathfinder so by your criterion humans would also be CR3 - which kind of makes a mockery of it being a level 2 adjustment.
In any case, I'm only interested in the 3rd level SLA; if something more appropriate were to present itself (a reskinned Human maybe? or just a straight ruling that Half-Dragons qualify), I'd go with that. I'm beginning to get tired of making all my EK's into Aasimar and would prefer something more common if it were made available, besides I get tons of flavour from the Half-Dragon template, which is what I really want to play up, so mixing it up with celestial backgrounds just makes it too complicated.
If I did have to go with Aasimaar, it would definitely be of Human Stock.
As regards background, I am thinking that he was the child of an escaped slave from the Darklands, impregnated by a Chromatic Dragon; this would make him anathema on sight to most people so he uses a Hat of Disguise, never revealing his true nature except to close friends.
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Not sure where you get the CR3 from; in 3.5 all player races were CR1/2, and nothing has changed as far as I can see in Pathfinder so by your criterion humans would also be CR3 - which kind of makes a mockery of it being a level 2 adjustment.It's from the half-dragon template, which specifies a minimum CR of 3. Whichever race makes up the other half of the half-dragon, the CR is still 2 higher than normal (minimum 3).
In any case, I'm only interested in the 3rd level SLA; if something more appropriate were to present itself (a reskinned Human maybe? or just a straight ruling that Half-Dragons qualify), I'd go with that. I'm beginning to get tired of making all my EK's into Aasimar and would prefer something more common if it were made available, besides I get tons of flavour from the Half-Dragon template, which is what I really want to play up, so mixing it up with celestial backgrounds just makes it too complicated.
Yeah, that does make it rather complicated. I'm not really inclined to bend the flavor for it, though, sorry.
You've considered going the true dragon route, right? I know it's not optimal mechanically but you can get sufficiently high-level SLAs that way and still be fully draconic.
If I did have to go with Aasimaar, it would definitely be of Human Stock.
As regards background, I am thinking that he was the child of an escaped slave from the Darklands, impregnated by a Chromatic Dragon; this would make him anathema on sight to most people so he uses a Hat of Disguise, never revealing his true nature except to close friends.
Sounds interesting. Maybe this escaped slave tumbled through a long-lost and sporadic portal in some ancient cave, and ended up somewhere in Triaxus that way?
It's from the half-dragon template, which specifies a minimum CR of 3. Whichever race makes up the other half of the half-dragon, the CR is still 2 higher than normal (minimum 3)
I don't think it works that way. You take any regular PC race with one level of PC class (CR1) and slap half-dragon template on it (CR+2) for total CR of 3.
Yes, quicklings are permissible (and Medium ones as well).
Guess it's worth repeating that Medium quickling can't ride Medium dragon, so no double prankster team.
150(avg).
I think we should also play out my slowing breath and acid breath weapon aka "universal lockpick" in our backstory.
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I don't think it works that way. You take any regular PC race with one level of PC class (CR1) and slap half-dragon template on it (CR+2) for total CR of 3.
A PC race with one level of a PC class is CR 1/2 (see Adding NPCs)! But yeah, I was explaining it kind of obtusely - better to just treat them as CR 2 creatures and then add class levels on top of those.
Here's the setting summary I promised above.
Many generations ago, there were no dragons on Triaxus - just the native triaxians, the semi-humanoid dragonkin, and the cruel, destructive drakes. That changed, though, when a force of metallic and chromatic dragons arrived to the planet. The chromatic dragons immediately seized vast swathes of the northernmost continent, which is now known as the Drakelands. They amassed armies of triaxian slaves, evil dragonkin, and vicious drakes, and began to spread towards the southeastern isthmus connecting the Drakelands to its sister continent Ora.
On the Parapet Mountains, though, the free people of the world made a final stand. The entire continent of Ora, previously a disorganized collection of squabbling countries of every stripe, joined together to amass a great army of dragonkin, triaxians, and metallic dragons. In what is now known as the War of Heroes, telepathically bonded dragonkin-triaxian generals led this army to halt the spread of the Drakelands, and succeeded. Hundreds of miles of isthmus are now dedicated to preserve this containment, and are known as the Skyfire Mandate.
Generations after the War of Heroes, the Drakelands are little different. Each true dragon warlord maintains its own territory and its own laws, with some styling themselves as benevolent dictators (e.g. the green dragon Aeomak, whose hoard of knowledge includes living scholars) and others treating their subjects as little more than livestock (e.g. the black dragon Brior the Unblinking, who sends hundreds of triaxian slaves into fume-choked mines in search of magically sensitive crystals). A few metallic dragons retain control over small areas of the Drakelands, but often sponsor highly militant societies in response to the threat of pogroms.
Continuing southeast from the Drakelands and the Skyfire Mandate lies the continent Ora. During the War of Heroes this became known as the Allied Territories, or simply "the Territories." Notable among these are Aylok, a region known for breeding high-quality mounts for cavalry on its expansive, fertile plains; Prieta, a city-state some hundred miles west of Aylok that prides itself as the "Scholar's Paradise" and values knowledge more highly than gold; Kamora, a wealthy gateway to the vast Uchorae Jungle in the continent's interior; and Zo, the Port of a Thousand Ships, which maintains magically melted shipping lanes during the winter and prides itself on markets where almost anything can be found. Ora's population shifts slightly towards the poles in the summer and back towards the equator in the winter, so borders in the Territories may change every 150 years or so. A theocracy might spring up one winter, only to be subsumed by an empire in the summer, only to break away into a democracy in the next cycle.
(Side note on time: A Triaxian day is 24 Earth-hours long; a Triaxian week is 10 days; a Triaxian month is 4 Triaxian weeks (40 days); a Triaxian "year" is 10 Triaxian months (400 days). "Season" refers to the length of a summer or a winter, and "cycle" refers to an entire Triaxian orbital year.)
West from Ora (or southwest of the Drakelands), across the Sephorian Sea lies the Sephorian Archipelago, which is a collection of several hundred islands in an unusually calm region of the seas. Despite the short distances between most islands, and the frequent trade between them, the Archipelago has almost half as many unique (though rustic) cultures as it has islands.
Further west and south (or southeast of Ora) lies the island-continent of Ning. Unlike the other two continents, Ning is entirely the domain of a single monarch - the Immortal Suzerain, who ironically inherits their title. Though well distanced from the political turmoil of the other two continents, the Immortal Suzerainty of Ning maintains a large standing army to defend its remote villages from a host of intelligent predators. Surprisingly for a populace so harried by monsters, Ningese place a very high value on proper etiquette and manners, from the Immortal Suzerain herself right down to the most backwoods antarctic shabal-herder. One aspect of this is the existence of the ukara or battleflower caste, which devotes its life to a form of ritualized gladatorial combat for the entertainment of high nobility. Members of this caste who do well in the pit are then treated like members of those nobility, while those who do poorly are banished to defend outlying communities.
No particular ideas yet, it just looks that copper dragon is a natural counter to quicklings. On top of regular dragon's blindsense, they have Fort targeting slowing breath, and uncanny dodge.
I'm also planning to have Stalker as my single class level, with all Veiled Moon teleportation and incorporeality goodness.
Unfortunately, coppers don't have change shape, I can't find a feat to get one, and it was nerfed in PF to last minutes/HD instead of permanent(D).
Maybe that egg cargo was fake and the dragon pulled that prank to see who would come to get it?
It looks like a quickling would qualify for Arcane Trickster with single Rogue level for second sneak attack die and single wizard or sorc level for mage hand and actual casting to progress.
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I don't think it should be fake, it would really nullify the moral event horision the event provided,
I was more thinking you were part of the cargo, and I busted you out, and then when the guards showed up you kicked their asses (when I would have run)
Slowing breath would be bad for me, yeah
As to arcane trickster, yeah, the first version of the character was an arcane trickster, in a gestalt game where the GM disappeared (something to do with witness protection I think. No I am not joking)
I feel that gestalt would be awesome because it would allow the dragons to not be identical to every other dragon of their age category and color, but as I'm not playing one I don't care too much. I mean I'd love to be gestalt, but it isn't required for my concept.
Hey GM! Can I use the "glory rouge" archetype, it's third party is why I ask.
Well, I don't mind sitting in the cage, it's the best place to see how my plan unfolds, but what do we do with these eggs?
I'm reading Draconomicon and it looks like embryonic wyrmling has good chance to die if egg is removed from very specific conditions for just an hour. I can't really imagine a situation of a young dragon and a pack of dragon eggs being smuggled and rescued (or tasked to steal) by a single quickling except if their parents were killed by a chromatic dragon very recently, but transporting is handled by his human minions.
Speaking of dragon's age, Young age category is only 16-25 years, which is equal to 11-15 years old human.
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In this context I'm using young to referr to the adjective not nessairailly the age category
I was figuring the eggs would be in a specially prepared magical crate I'm imagining no more than four eggs in this magical incubation crate
Or the young dragon could have been tasked with keeping the eggs alive as best it could,
And with my stealth score most guards wouldn't be able to see me even on a natural twenty,
I'm imagining it being transported on a train that I intercept and am given information on which car it'd be in by my contact
Guards get overconfident and complacent once they get most of the way through the trip "who'd hit a moving train" they'd ask
They start playing cards and I go around them all invisible.
My character class will be ranger/horizon walker
Shi is a scout and a surveyor. she came to the planet to explore :)
If chosen, what terrains should i take? as a group, since some of the bonuses are also applied to the party :)
Hope I'm not too late, but I'm deeply intrigued by the idea of playing as a 'poet-whale'. From what I can discover, the only description is "the glowing poet-whales of the arctic oceans, whose
true name has no syllables, only shifting tones."
Any recommendations for statting this up? Size?
It's from the half-dragon template, which specifies a minimum CR of 3. Whichever race makes up the other half of the half-dragon, the CR is still 2 higher than normal (minimum 3).Ok, I see the confusion here. A level 1 pc race with +2cr Is cr3. That satisfies the minimum. In any case, according to the rules on monsters as pcs
It is recommended that for every 3 levels gained by the group, the monster character should gain an extra level, received halfway between the 2nd and 3rd levels. Repeat this process a number of times equal to half the monster's CR, rounded down.
which means that at 3rd level the gap would close by 1 and at 9th level, I would be an 8th level character.
You've considered going the true dragon route, right? I know it's not optimal mechanically but you can get sufficiently high-level SLAs that way and still be fully draconic.
No, I prefer Half dragon.
Sounds interesting. Maybe this escaped slave tumbled through a long-lost and sporadic portal in some ancient cave, and ended up somewhere in Triaxus that way?If I did have to go with Aasimaar, it would definitely be of Human Stock.
As regards background, I am thinking that he was the child of an escaped slave from the Darklands, impregnated by a Chromatic Dragon; this would make him anathema on sight to most people so he uses a Hat of Disguise, never revealing his true nature except to close friends.
I like that. It solves problem of getting from the Drakelands to our starting location.
Ok, given that early entry EK is not available unless I go Aasimaar, I'll have to go Paladin. Growing up in an isolated frontier community, a Paladin of Erastil springs to mind. In his own community, his "curse" is known and accepted, given a frontiers need for good people. Outside of his community, he has learned to rely on a hat of disguise. He usually uses it to take on the appearance of a Gold half dragon (it reduces confusion).
You could go draconic bloodrager.
That said, I'm liking the story as a paladin
I thought of that. Most of what I'd get as a draconic bloodrager, I'd get as a half dragon, and I don't like doubling up. I suppose I could drop the half dragon, but I just like the idea of playing one and it makes sense given the campaign, plus it wouldn't fit so well with the background I've mapped out.
I also considered Magus or bard; either would be a good match for a half dragon. But I asked myself, if he has grown up in an isolated community that's often at threat from monsters, what would he end up as? With his capabilities he would become a defender of the rural community, and that makes paladin. As he becomes more capable, he would outgrow his local community and move onto bigger things, meaning he would need his hat of disguise.
Yeah ;-)
I think I will go for a castigator build. Standard Falchion, nothing fancy.
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Slowing breath would be bad for me, yeah
As to arcane trickster, yeah, the first version of the character was an arcane trickster, in a gestalt game where the GM disappeared (something to do with witness protection I think. No I am not joking)
I feel that gestalt would be awesome because it would allow the dragons to not be identical to every other dragon of their age category and color, but as I'm not playing one I don't care too much. I mean I'd love to be gestalt, but it isn't required for my concept.
Hey GM! Can I use the "glory rouge" archetype, it's third party is why I ask.
Gestalt sounds fun but I don't really know how to balance encounters for it and . . . it wasn't what I really hoped to run, so I don't think we'll do it. Dragons can still re-allocate feats and skill ranks, though.
Glory rogue is acceptable. My friend Lemmy also has done some work on "fixing" the rogue (also permissible).
I'm imagining it being transported on a train that I intercept and am given information on which car it'd be in by my contact
Guards get overconfident and complacent once they get most of the way through the trip "who'd hit a moving train" they'd ask
They start playing cards and I go around them all invisible.
Worth noting that Triaxus 80 years in the future is about the same tech level as Golarion "today." No trains! But it could have been a long caravan through a still-frozen boreal forest, or across a glacier. A ship in port still works, too.
As for the egg issue . . . Draconomicon is 3.5 so it doesn't necessarily apply to the Pathfinder setting (which has Dragons Revisited, I believe). If you wanna use those rules though you could just say that Nyaa's dragon warned Sam against stealing the eggs and killing them, and instead you two just left and vowed to liberate the hatchlings once they were big enough to transport? (Maybe whoever contracted Sam didn't know about the extra eggs?)
If chosen, what terrains should i take? as a group, since some of the bonuses are also applied to the party :)Urban is likely to be useful. You will also be traveling through mountains, jungle, and plains, and the most direct route to your destinations is along the Rime River.
Hope I'm not too late, but I'm deeply intrigued by the idea of playing as a 'poet-whale'. From what I can discover, the only description is "the glowing poet-whales of the arctic oceans, whose
true name has no syllables, only shifting tones."
Any recommendations for statting this up? Size?
That is indeed the only description. You can choose how to stat them up, but I suspect an adult would be Gargantuan or Colossal. Maybe make a young version - 8 HD? - and make them magical beasts with a few useful spell-like abilities?
Being so large they probably take tens if not hundreds of years to fully mature . . . but being poets, they probably also have triaxian-level mental statistics or better, even before full size. Visually they're probably different from Earth whales, leaving aside the luminescence - feel free to throw in multiple flippers or eyes a la the wolliped.
It doesn't seem like they'd be naturally amphibious, so you'll need flight or polymorph magic. A greater hat of disguise might work.
Alternatively rather, they could have a land-based larval stage . . . but that's probably not what you're looking for.
Ok, I see the confusion here. A level 1 pc race with +2cr Is cr3. That satisfies the minimum. In any case, according to the rules on monsters as pcsAh, I wasn't planning on using that recommendation. It doesn't seem to me like the half-dragon template gets much less useful as you level up - you've still got very good defenses, extra natural attacks, and good speed/senses. The only thing that gets weaker is the breath weapon, and that's only once per day anyways.It is recommended that for every 3 levels gained by the group, the monster character should gain an extra level, received halfway between the 2nd and 3rd levels. Repeat this process a number of times equal to half the monster's CR, rounded down.which means that at 3rd level the gap would close by 1 and at 9th level, I would be an 8th level character.
I like that. It solves problem of getting from the Drakelands to our starting location.Ahhh, I thought you actually meant Golarion's Darklands. If you're from the Drakelands could you pick some other race besides human for your parent? There aren't any native humans (nor orcs, dwarves, or halflings) on Triaxus.
Ok, given that early entry EK is not available unless I go Aasimaar, I'll have to go Paladin. Growing up in an isolated frontier community, a Paladin of Erastil springs to mind. In his own community, his "curse" is known and accepted, given a frontiers need for good people. Outside of his community, he has learned to rely on a hat of disguise. He usually uses it to take on the appearance of a Gold half dragon (it reduces confusion).
This is great!
If you want to pick a pre-existing town, here are expanded descriptions of the villages mentioned earlier. Glacier sprouted up just a few years ago to take advantage of the fertile valley opened up by the melting Eyefjell Glacier. South of that is Hallowfeld, which was established halfway through last winter and exports the milk and blood of its goat-like shabals and, now that the ground has thawed, maze-wheat and groundfruits. On the other side of the Upper Rime from Hallowfeld, and ten miles downstream, is the village Forestdal, which exports lumber from the Eyebite Forest. Southeast of Forestdal and completely out of the foothills, is another farming town named Kiltar. Kiltar is the largest village (nearly 300 inhabitants) and is the closest to the regional center of Lamid.
What you're describing is also reminiscent of Ning, where roaming monsters frequently threaten rural villages. It'd be a lot harder to make a backstory for you leaving there, though.
Would you allow a half-construct custom race?
I am thinking of an arcane-powered android-like race made to protect a sacred landmark or what have you. Their life-cycles coincide with the seasons of the planet, so some are "programmed" to awaken during the winter seasons and others in the summer. While in the opposite seasons, they remain in stasis. They appear as marble statues of various humanoid creatures. Their eyes, hair and body would be just one uniform marble white, sometimes with faintly glimmering runes and markings. They stand generally at the higher end of the medium size bracket, just bordering large, no matter what humanoid they are based off of.
Race: Terminus (may or may not change)
Half-Construct (7rp)
Slow Speed (-1rp)
Specialized (1rp: +2 STR, +2 CON, -2 CHA)
Advanced Constitution (4rp) (Con total at +4)
Dual-Minded (1rp: +2 Will)
So they would be strong, hearty, but not very personable (after all, they're humanoid blocks of stone). Due to their weight, they'd be slower. I originally wanted to give them spell resistance, greater but I figured that was too much of a dual-edged sword. I'd like to add something else, preferably for 3rp that symbolizes their arcane nature.
Would love critique and opinions seeing as this is my first time race-building.
Judging by your description they could use Powerful Build.
Hmm, forgeborns didn't make it to the SRD. They are on Ultimate Psionics page 16.
+2 Strength, +2 Intelligence, –4 Charisma: Forge-
born are strong and have quick minds, but are mon-
strous in appearance and have difficulty relating to
other races.
Medium: Forgeborn are Medium creatures and have
no bonuses or penalties due to their size.
Half-Construct: Forgeborn are of the humanoid type,
with the half-construct and forgeborn subtypes.
Slow and Steady: Forgeborn have a base speed of
20 feet, but their speed is never modified by armor or
encumbrance.
Fearless: Forgeborn gain a +2 bonus against fear
effects.
Natural Armor: Forgeborn are sturdier than other
races and gain a +1 natural armor bonus to their AC.
Source Crystal: Unlike most half-constructs, forge-
born can be raised and resurrected.
Naturally Psionic: Forgeborn gain the Wild Talent
feat as a bonus feat at 1st level. If a forgeborn takes
levels in a psionic class, he instead gains the Psionic
Talent feat.
Psionic Aptitude: When a forgeborn takes a level
in a favored class, he can choose to gain an additional
power point instead of a hit point or skill point.
Languages: Forgeborn begin play speaking Com-
mon and Forgeborn. Forgeborn with high Intelligence
scores can choose from the following: Dwarven, Elven,
Maenad, Ophiduan, Xeph.
The half-construct subtype is from the Advanced
Race Guide and is detailed below.
A half-construct race is a group of creatures that
are artificially enhanced or have parts replaced
by constructed mechanisms, be they magical or
mechanical. A half-construct race has the following
features.
• Half-constructs gain a +2 racial bonus on saving
throws against disease, mind-affecting effects, poison,
and effects that cause either exhaustion or fatigue.
• Half-constructs cannot be raised or resurrected.
• Half-constructs do not breathe, eat, or sleep, unless
they want to gain some beneficial effect from one of
these activities. This means that a half-construct can
drink potions to benefit from their effects and can
sleep in order to regain spells, but neither of these
activities is required for the construct to survive or
stay in good health.
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That sounds very cool, and the race doesn't look unbalanced. In the summary a few posts above I left out a part about some vaguely sacred landmarks, which could be appropriate.
To the more “civilized” nations of the continents, the most interesting aspects of the archipelago are the mysterious cylindrical towers on some of the islands that periodically exhale smoke and, aside from being used as navigational aids, are treated as taboo by the residents. Many of the more fertile islands are also left fallow, for reasons either unremembered or unexplained to outsiders.
Maybe this race would be a group of "lighthouse-keepers" (not called that in-setting, obviously) built to defend an ancient nation from its enemies? But those enemies are long gone, so these keepers have to find their own purpose in life.
There are also some arcane ruins in the Skyfire Mandate; the Three Sisters is a cluster of active volcanoes that once housed the primary force of the Dragon Legion, which was the original anti-chromatic organization. The Three Sisters suffered an explosive attack from the Drakelands, though, and now the immense forges and flywheels lie dormant.
12 RP is a fairly good number. I'd maybe rename the "dual-minded" trait to "mind shielding" or something like that, though - unless dual-mindedness is actually part of the race's flavor. Or you could just remove it entirely and add something like a minor arcane spell-like ability.
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Alrighty, here we go...
Creatures of magic and legend, the poet-whales of the Triaxian Arctic live then write epic tales of undersea tragedy, drama and triumph. These tales they share with each other through whale song with unknown magical properties. Thought by some to be a created species, it is not widely known but whales 'sing' their children into adolescence. After the rude calf is birthed into the water, the mother and father sing to it, guiding its physical development to the point where the child can take care of itself and sing its to its desired maturity. Modern times have brought a new practice, agreed to by volunteer pod members, where parents sing to their child past the typical point where children are left to grow for themselves; they sing them into a new form, the form of the cetakin. Unlike their parents, cetakin are able to ford into open land by use of their strong tails, similar to the merfolk of other worlds. Cetakin are also smaller, though still larger than many land-going creatures. Their ability to breath the air also comes at the cost of much of their mystical singing abilities, and they can only communicate with their parent-race in the barest fashion. Cruel though these restrictions might be, for the chance to write and bring back legends and poetry from the world above the poet-whales are willing to inflict them on their young. Most cetakin embrace their heritage and their role on the surface, and are celebrated by their seagoing families.
Racial stats:
Trait--Cost
Aberration--3
Large--7
Slow Speed---1
Int +2, Wis -2, Str +2--0 (Cetakin are strong and intelligent, though can sometimes be naive or uncautious)
Swim--1 (Cetakin can swim, but at nowhere near the speed of their parents (20ft))
Amphibious--2
Ghost Sound at-will--0
Whalsong + other Language--0
Total--12
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Now we can have Small murderous invisible fairy riding Medium prankster dragon riding Large amphibious poem-reciting whale!
With arcane energies flowing through them like blood, I'd imagine that it would play a role in keeping their heads on straight, so to speak. I'd end up changing the title of Mental Shielding sounds more appropriate.