Dotting in! Thanks for running for us rknop, I'm very excited to play! Hopefully we won't have too much trouble with no arcane caster in the group, but perhaps we can recruit ourselves an NPC helper to do all the magic-ing. :-D
That was super quick....
No Arcane caster....? Who was the 4th?
True, but I am only planning to take 2 levels of Alchy and then go Rogue (Vexing Dodger) so I probably won't be useful as a mage for long. :-P
I just saw...a brawler????
I'm kinda confused by that choice really...
Who wouldn't want to wrestle giants?? LOL
It's less about the characters are more about the players anyway. We'll figure out any necessary party dynamics and such. :)
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Yeah, I agree. Balanced parties are nice, but players that play well together are more fun. Play what you want, and you'll find ways to make it work out.
I spent years starting as a kid and going on through college running an occasional one-on-one with a good friend. There were three characters: a fighter, a paladin, and a magic-user. (We're talking 1st edition AD&D here, so "magic-user" was the term.) This is not a very balanced party, but they got very good at knowing just what healing they had available to them....
you guys did 20 point buy or 15???
I think posting rate is more important than anything honestly...and if you are online this much during the day Rknop then we will be great.
Cartman and I are online alot due to our jobs, and I think Grok's guy is also...I don't know Azih, but being online during 9-5 might be very important.
Yea, I am much more active during the workweek than the weekend. I can easily post multiple times a day from work.
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Heh -- I won't always be online this much. It's Spring Break right now, so I'm able to post more than usual. Classes start up again next week, and I have a couple of tests to give, so I won't be able to post nearly this much. I will be able to keep up the one-a-day rate, but whether or not I will be able to do middle-of-the-day posts is going to be very hit and miss. (Come May, the term will be over, and I will have a much lighter schedule. Still doing research at work, still a lot to do, but with not nearly as much scheduled and time pressure. At that point, and for the next few months after that, my rate should increase again.)
It's always great when the players get some interaction going amongst themselves as well, and can make some progress in the game even between my posts.
Decided to drop the Inspired Chemist archetype because I hadn't noticed that the Inspiring Mutagen causes ability damage to both Str and Dex after its effects end. That suuuuucks. Dex mutagen for the win!
And I also wouldn't worry about what time of the day posts are done, as long as they get done. We can definitely do some interaction amongst ourselves while we're waiting for stuff to be resolved by the GM.
And yes, 20 point buy is our standard (mostly because of PFS)
I'm making my character sheet now...instead of working.
I think I'll take Scribe Scroll to help with healing...casting those types of spells from scrolls will make it easier for the ONLY caster in the party to keep up.
Male Human Druid 1
NG medium humanoid
Init +1 Senses Normal Vision Perception +6
DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 14
hp 10
Fort 3 Reflex 1 Will 5
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft
Melee Spear +3 (1d8+4/x3) or Masterwork Dagger +4 (1d4+3/19-20/x2)
Ranged Sling +1 (1d4+3/x2)
Space 5 Reach 5
STATISTICS
STR 16 DEX 12 CON 13 INT 12 WIS 15 CHA 11
BAB 0 CMB 3 CMD 14
Feats Spell Focus (Conjuration), Scribe Scroll
Skills Acrobatics -2, Appraise 1, Bluff 0, Climb 4, Diplomacy 0, Disguise 0, Escape Artist -2, Fly -2, Handle Animal 4, Heal 2, Intimidate 0, Knowledge (geography) 5, Knowledge (nature) 7, Perception 6, Ride -2, Sense Motive 2, Stealth -2, Survival 8, Swim 0
Languages Common, Orc, Druidic
Gear Spear, Masterwork Dagger, Sling
Human Traits (Core 27)
• Bonus Feat (Core 27): You gain 1 bonus feat at 1st level*.
• Skilled (Core 27): You gain 1 additional skill rank at
each level*.
Traits
• Trailblazer (Hug 31): While traversing any wilderness, yougain a +1 trait bonus on Survival checks, and gain a +1 trait bonus on Fortitude saving throws against diseases.
• Trunau Native: You were born and raised in the town
of Trunau, one of the few human settlements in the orc dominated
Hold of Belkzen. Orc attacks are an ever-present
threat, and like all Trunauans, you have made the Standing
Vow: to hold Trunau against all attackers, orc or otherwise, to
stand your ground, and to live free or die trying. Upon coming
of age, you were given a hopeknife—a small, sheathed dagger,
usually worn on a chain under your clothes—and taught how
to use it to take your own life to avoid capture by orcs, or to
grant the mercy of a quick death to the wounded. As a native,
you have served in Trunau’s militia, and fought alongside
Patrol Captains Kurst and Rodrik Grath. You begin play with
a hopeknife (a masterwork dagger), and your tenacity in the
face of adversity grants you a +1 trait bonus on Will saves.
Class Features
• Archetype(s): Mountain Druid
• Armor and Shield Proficiency: You are proficient in Lightand Medium Armor. You are proficient with shields (except Tower Shields).*
• Weapon Proficiency: You are proficient with the following weapons: Club; Dagger; Dart; Quarterstaff; Scimitar; Scythe; Shortspear; Sickle; Sling; Spear; Unarmed Strike; Pistol, dagger (melee attack)
• Nature Bond (Core 50): You are bonded to an animal companion.
• Nature Sense (Core 50): You get a +2 to Knowledge (nature)and Survival checks.*
• Spontaneous Casting (Core 49): You can channel stored spell energy into summoning spells that you haven't prepared ahead of time.
• Wild Empathy (Core 50): You can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. Your Wild Empathy Check is 1d20 +1.
Feats
• Spell Focus (Conjuration) (Core 134): Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against spells from the school of conjuration.*
• Scribe Scroll (Core 132): You can create a scroll of any spell you know.
• Armor Proficiency, Medium (Core 118): You are proficientwearing medium armor.
• Armor Proficiency, Light (Core 118): You are proficient wearing light armor.
• Shield Proficiency (Core 133): When you use a shield, the shield's armor check penalty only applies to Strength- and Dexterity-based skills.*
Weapon Traits
• Brace Weapon: If you use a readied action to set a brace weapon against a charge, you deal double damage on a successful hit against a charging creature.
Spells:
0: Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light
1: Entangle, Magic Fang
Grungir the Wolf
Size Medium; Pereption +1 (Scent, Low Light Vision)
Speed 50 ft
Init +2;
AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +3 natural, +0 size)
hp 16 (2d8+4)
Fort +5, Ref +5, Will +1
Melee bite +2 (1d6+1) and TRIP
CMB +2; CMD 14
Space 5 ft.; Reach 5 ft.
Ability Scores Str 13, Dex 15, Con 15, Int 2, Wis 12, Cha 6;
Feats: Improved Natural Armor
Skills: Acrobatics DEX +6, Climb STR +1,Escape Artist DEX +2, Intimidate CHA -2, Perception WIS +1, Stealth DEX +2, Survival WIS +2, Swim STR +1
Tricks:
• Attack: The animal attacks apparent enemies. You may point to a particular creature that you wish the animal to attack, and it will comply if able.
• Down: The animal breaks off from combat or otherwise backs down.
• Stay: The animal stays in place, waiting for you to return.
• Come: The animal comes to you, even if it normally would not do so.
• Defend: The animal defends you (or is ready to defend you if no threat is present), even without any command being given. Alternatively, you can command the animal to defend another specific character.
• Track: The animal tracks the scent presented to it. (This requires the animal to have the scent ability.)
• Heel: The animal follows you closely, even to places where it normally wouldn't go.
I believe alchemists can also use wants of cure light. That should help the out of combat healing.
Racket will also be able to use wands of spells that are on the Alchemist extract list, so as soon as we have the money he can get a wand of cure light wounds.
"RACKET TOO SLOW. GROK POST FIRST. PUNY RACKET WIMPY."
By the way, I intend do use all caps with the [smaller] tag to RP the fact that this is a walking, talking rock. Not that he is yelling. He is boisterous and monotone.
@Grok Looks good.
@GM Can I use my starting wealth to craft scrolls since I took Scribe Scroll?
Hey guys. Yup I really had the idea of a Zangief knockoff wanting to wrestle giants. Might not be optimal? But who knows it might be amazing. Should be a laugh. I'm lucky enough that I can post from work too.
Modifying the character sheet. 20 point buy?
Done I think.
I don't wanna throw shade at anyone's character....but am I the only one who didn't dump INT/WIS or CHA????? We have like 0 social skills...
I didn't dump Wis. But did slightly dump Int and Cha. It's a pretty martial build. Could pick up Initimidating Prowess at some point if people think it's important.
Pretty sure I did 150gp. And... yeah, Racket and Grok are not the best socializers.
I get the impression that social skills might be less useful in Giantslayer than other APs.
It is my experience in PbP that playing non social characters leads to one guy doing all the posting on noncombat days...and that isn't fun.
It would help me out if you guys could shift some things around to help when it comes to Skills like Sense Motive, Diplomacy, Bluff, Appraise, Knowledges(In general, however I did notice that Grok has Dungeoneering and Engineering)
Ideas for this include:
Using Favored Class bonuses for +1 SkillPoint (I'm already doing this at first level)
Ability Score changes
Trait changes to give you access to various non class skills.
"
Male Human Druid 1
NG medium humanoid
Init +1 Senses Normal Vision Perception +6
DEFENSE
AC 15, touch 11, flat-footed 14
hp 9
Fort 3 Reflex 1 Will 4
OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft
Melee Spear +3 (1d8+4/x3) or Masterwork Dagger +4 (1d4+3/19-20/x2)
Ranged Sling +1 (1d4+3/x2)
Space 5 Reach 5
STATISTICS
STR 16 DEX 12 CON 12 INT 12 WIS 15 CHA 12
BAB 0 CMB 3 CMD 14
Feats Spell Focus (Conjuration), Scribe Scroll
Skills Acrobatics -2, Appraise 1, Bluff 1, Climb 4, Diplomacy 6, Disguise 1, Escape Artist -2, Fly -2, Handle Animal 5, Heal 2, Intimidate 1, Knowledge (geography) 5, Knowledge (nature) 7, Perception 6, Ride -2, Sense Motive 2, Stealth -2, Survival 8, Swim 0
Languages Common, Orc, Druidic
Gear Spear, Masterwork Dagger, Sling
Human Traits (Core 27)
• Bonus Feat (Core 27): You gain 1 bonus feat at 1st level*.
• Skilled (Core 27): You gain 1 additional skill rank at each level*.
Traits
• Influence [Diplomacy] (UCa 60): You gain a +1 on this skill* and it is a class skill* for you.
• Trunau Native: You were born and raised in the town of Trunau, one of the few human settlements in the orc dominated Hold of Belkzen. Orc attacks are an ever-present threat, and like all Trunauans, you have made the Standing Vow: to hold Trunau against all attackers, orc or otherwise, to stand your ground, and to live free or die trying. Upon coming of age, you were given a hopeknife—a small, sheathed dagger, usually worn on a chain under your clothes—and taught how to use it to take your own life to avoid capture by orcs, or to grant the mercy of a quick death to the wounded. As a native, you have served in Trunau’s militia, and fought alongside Patrol Captains Kurst and Rodrik Grath. You begin play with a hopeknife (a masterwork dagger), and your tenacity in the face of adversity grants you a +1 trait bonus on Will saves.
Class Features
• Archetype(s): Mountain Druid
• Armor and Shield Proficiency: You are proficient in Lightand Medium Armor. You are proficient with shields (except Tower Shields).*
• Weapon Proficiency: You are proficient with the following weapons: Club; Dagger; Dart; Quarterstaff; Scimitar; Scythe; Shortspear; Sickle; Sling; Spear; Unarmed Strike; Pistol, dagger (melee attack)
• Nature Bond (Core 50): You are bonded to an animal companion.
• Nature Sense (Core 50): You get a +2 to Knowledge (nature)and Survival checks.*
• Spontaneous Casting (Core 49): You can channel stored spell energy into summoning spells that you haven't prepared ahead of time.
• Wild Empathy (Core 50): You can improve the attitude of an animal. This ability functions just like a Diplomacy check made to improve the attitude of a person. Your Wild Empathy Check is 1d20 +1.
Feats
• Spell Focus (Conjuration) (Core 134): Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against spells from the school of conjuration.*
• Scribe Scroll (Core 132): You can create a scroll of any spell you know.
• Armor Proficiency, Medium (Core 118): You are proficientwearing medium armor.
• Armor Proficiency, Light (Core 118): You are proficient wearing light armor.
• Shield Proficiency (Core 133): When you use a shield, the shield's armor check penalty only applies to Strength- and Dexterity-based skills.*
Weapon Traits
• Brace Weapon: If you use a readied action to set a brace weapon against a charge, you deal double damage on a successful hit against a charging creature.
Spells:
0: Detect Magic, Read Magic, Light
1: Entangle, Magic Fang
This version has 12Con/Cha instead of 13/11 and an additional Skill point instead of HP for favored class bonus. Also, took the Influential trait to gain access to diplomacy as a class skill.
Working a backstory in my head, Trunau native born son who is a "Do gooder" and has a bit of a Captain America/Dudley Do-Right kinda vibe.
Also, how much GP at 1st? Class average?
I can't really afford the skill points on those things at the moment (Alchemists don't get as many points as I'd like), but as soon as I take my first Rogue level I will get a lot more skill points and will definitely invest in several of them. I'm also not using my favored class yet, so I can't get the extra skill point at first level.
I think we're going 150gp, at least that's what Grok and I did for our character creation.
EDIT: Do you all think it might be worth it for me to start off with a single level of Rogue instead of a level of Alchemist? The biggest reason I wanted to start with alchemist is to be able to use craft(Alchemy) to make alchemical items, which can save us a lot of gold toward the beginning, and also to get that important Int damage to alchemist fires and such. But, if a Rogue level would be more useful to the party to start out, I could do that.
I think maybe full alchemist with infusion might be great for the party as that's some sweet buffs in there. But I don't want to interfere with your vision for Racket.
In some other games there's a houserule where characters can get a free 'social' class skill or free skill points every level that must be used for social purposes. Maybe something like that can be adapted here? It's up to you rknop and could address Niles' concern.
I can modify Zavier a bit but he's a lightly armoured front line guy so all the physical stats are a bit necessary for his survivability. :)
No, full alchemist would not fit his concept at all. He's definitely going to be mostly Vexing Dodger rogue. But I think I can swing that for 1st level and take the Alchemist levels after. He'll get Sneak +2d6 at 2nd level, which is an added bonus anyway. Let me reconfigure him a bit, and I'll post again when he's updated.
There we go. Now Racket has Appraise, Bluff, Diplomacy, Kn(local), Linguistics, and is even better at Stealth. :-D
I'm playing Zavier as pretty naive from the get go but on level up (assuming of course that he survives) I will go with adding Kn:Local, Kn:Dungeon, and Sense Motive. I've also put a skill point into Intimidate for now.
@Racket Thanks! Hopefully second level comes fast so you can get the things you want...
@Zavier In PbP,it is my opinion that its a bad thing to have any characters that cannot contribute out of combat, since in my estimation a full 2/3 of all posts are out of combat posts. And when a character cannot contribute they don't post, and when they don't post regularly, games die. Posting rate/consistency > everything else in PbP format.
I think this group can work well in- and out-of-combat. Just gotta play it up. :)
And don't worry about the alchemist level, the biggest thing I lost was the +2 damage to alchemical splash weapons, and that's really not a huge deal, and a worthy trade-off for all of those skill points. Since this isn't PFS I can still make alchemical items using Craft (alchemy), so we don't lose out on those at the beginning. Plus now I can climb any creature that's Medium or larger and they take penalties to hit me when I'm climbing them! :-D
Grok will be useful for str type noncombat, engineering, dungeoneering, perception, and general Grokness.
Fair enough Niles. Unless my life situation drastically changes though I haven't had a problem in any of my other games where I haven't contributed. I can always role play why I can't roll play in a given situation.
I'm also not shy about making untrained or aid another skill checks.
I see your point though. Since it's a small. 4 person party maybe we can go up to 25 point buy to make more well rounded characters or get some social focused character creation bumps?
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Niles is right; you don't want to have a party where only one person is capable of social interaction. This doesn't mean everybody has to be good at it; you have to want to do it. But, it will get tiring if you're always trying to do it and really can't, sort of like those few and far between PFS scenarios that are heavily based on investigation and roleplaying, and you show up with a combat-optimized barbarian who can't talk to anybody. You'll feel useless.
This AP is not just a kick-down-the-door-and-kill-the-monster scenario. Indeed, a substantial fraction of the first part of it is investigation and social roleplaying. There will of course be combat-- it's a Paizo AP after all! But that's not the be-all and end-all of it, so you don't want to design characters only for that.
There's no need to bump to 25 point buy. The AP is actually designed for four first-level PCs with a 15 point buy, so you're already a bit overpowered compared to the assumption even with a 20 point buy. You can make well-rounded characters on 20 points (or 15 points); there's no need to have an 18 in your core stat at level 1, for instance. Since it's not a wargame, you'll be better off with more well-rounded characters than with min-maxed characters focused primarily on one thing.
Should I change my attributes?
*Preface* It is your character, and I don't want to tell you to change, or what to do. This is simply a response to you asking about your attributes.
If it were me, I would drop cha down to 8, and bump int up to 10. At 9/9 you get the worst of both worlds, penalty to both. With 8/10 you only get a penalty to one and the penalty does not jump to -2. If you want to RP low intelligence, it can be a RP choice and does not need to be completely stat driven. (Maybe RP ignorance rather than deficiency, etc)
"GROK FEEL STALKER. GROK SMASH!"
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Tomorrow and through the weekend, I'm off at a gaming convention, so I will be very scarce between now and Monday. (I'm going to be playing a whole bunch of PFS; running three games, playing four others.)
Early next week, I'll set up a Wiki where we can keep things like unclaimed loot, player notes, etc. It will be editable by all of you. I'll make it so that one can't read it without signing in; that way, I can post pictures there, but they won't be available to the general Internet, so it's the closest online thing we have to "showing your gaming group pictures" without just putting them up online. We'll get the game rolling sometime after that.
I don't feel there's any difference between RPING 8 int and 9 int. I just don't put anything down to 8 so people won't think I'm min maxing and dumping stats. :)
Here is my profile.
@Zavier What about dropping the 18STR to 17...then you have 3 more point buy points to add to other stats.
I think I'll go with 8 int, cha 10, and pay a feat tax soon to bump up my Intimidate. Should give him plenty to do outside of combat. I hear what you're saying Niles/Nilus but if Zavier is going to have any hope of wrestling giants he's going to have to be really strong.
I forgot to ask if you were willing to allow a couple of freedoms with Grok. They are not really mechanical, but add a lot of RP. They apply to the giant blooded campaign trait.
I would like the aesthetic changes to be that Grok is large for an Oread. (Typically 4'2"-5') I would like him to be 6'2" if possible. That makes him large for an Oread, but still within the sizes of humans. Not a giant or anything by a long shot. I think it adds a lot of RP flavor to have him as a big hunk of stone.
Second, Oread do not have Giant as a bonus language, but would you allow it with my RP being that my mother was a half-giant?
Giant-Blooded
Source Giantslayer Player's Guide pg. 6, Giant Hunter's Handbook pg. 31 (Amazon)
Category Campaign
Requirement(s) Giantslayer
Your family has always been dogged by rumors that a bit of giant blood got into the family’s veins at some point. Whether this was through alchemical or magical experimentation, or because your great-great-grandfather married a giant, it has made you big for your race, and may have given you other minor cosmetic features of giants, such as flaming red hair, a bluish tinge to your skin, or oversized hands. When you wield a weapon that is larger than your size, the penalty on attack rolls for using inappropriately sized weapons is reduced by half. In addition, you gain a +2 trait bonus to your CMD against awesome blow combat maneuvers. If you’re a dwarf, your stability racial trait applies to awesome blow combat maneuvers as well.