This campaign (Gestalt) is a direct result of having absolutely no bards apply for any of my Hell's Rebels campaigns. So now everyone is a bard or skald (and something else). This should allow for an amazing variety of characters and archetypes to come into play (even without gestalt, I could see a full-bard party working rather well in this campaign).
The rules for character creation are off to the left under 'Campaign Info', this gives me the ability to edit the rules as we go and as things I didn't account for come up.
About the DM: I'm a very active poster who is also a human being. I'm much better as a player than as a DM, but I'd like to move more towards 'Zero-Sum' with my games, creating as many places for people to play, as I take positions to play. I very much am more interested in telling (and reading!) a story than anything else on here, though having interesting people to chat with is also readily acceptable.
Hopefully, I've given everyone enough information to make a decision as to whether or not my game is 'for them'. :)
I am interested so hard!
Submission incoming
Ah, there's one change already that I forgot! 'City-based' effects are going to be swapped to 'Neighborhood-based'. Since roughly 2/3 of the campaign will be spent in Kintargo, spreading your personal influence amongst the various districts makes a lot more sense to me. :)
Speaking of, you'll find a bit of information at the top of the page allowing easy access. Some of it may contain 'spoilers' from the perspective of other DMs, but it's meant to help you understand the concepts of the city itself, as well as giving you a map to line things up.
I added the following change to Creation Rules:
Classes and Archetypes that grant bonuses for Territories (based on cities, regions, and their ilk) will function based on 'Districts' of the city. This will keep them from being 'always on bonuses' and help differentiate between the various submissions we get!
Options: Old Kintargo, Redroof, Temple Hill, Jarvis End, Castle District, Bleakbridge/Yolubilis Harbor, The Villegre, The Greens.
Hopefully this doesn't dissuade folks from playing the Chelish Diva. :)
This doesn't affect abilities that affect all cities such as a ranger's Urban Favored Terrain.
Hmmm. Interesting. Dotted; thinking an aasimar dancer, though I don't know what their other class will be. Caught across several - monk, brawler, ninja, and inquisitor, and between skald and bard. :P
I definitely know that feeling, Two-Headed-Snake-Dragon-Thing. :)
Dotting for interest, I really like this idea.
And by "incoming" I mean when I'm done with work...
Love the district idea! I was actually going to go Diva myself :D
Dotting
Get yer Brian Blessed stand in made! How about a Strix bard?
This sounds like a lot of fun! It's a busy time of year for me, but I'll see what I can throw together in the next few days. Tentatively, I'm thinking of an elven Calistrian warpriest / sandman bard, sent by her superiors in the church to keep a discreet eye on things, and foment liberating chaos, all while maintaining plausible deniability. ;)
Incidentally, would the rules for magic schools from Inner Sea Magic be available? I gather the opera house has been expropriated, but might the company be still practicing, hoping to find a new venue?
Hmm. My defunct HR character, a strix aerokineticist (with a lot of background to explain strixishness), is all about stealth and not being seen—which probably isn't ideal for "Chelish Diva"
But I've got a couple ideas. Since I'm currently playing one bard and two skalds in various campaigns, I'd need to go a bit unusual with this. Maybe something like a juggler, though I'm not really digging juggler. (Not sure if I can find a more unusual of bard than Teniel's ghost puppetry, but I'll try)
Should characters be able to fit into one big band, or just be bards of some sort in general?
Inner Sea magic is easily available on either Archives of Nethys or D20PFSRD. :)
There isn't a 'natural' movement of where the Opera singers would have moved to. Jarvis End along with Aria Park are the more obvious places to have moved to. The latter is more likely for some, the former for others. Songbird Hall is another good place for art of any kind. Other performers could literally find a home in any of dozens of places. Many of the singers likely are missing, though.
Hopefully that helps! :)
It's not at all necessary that the Bards be a 'Circus' or 'Big Band' or what have you. Ideally, 'All Walks of Life' will lead to more interesting characters, though. :)
I've nothing against Strix. I'm a lot more flexible on races than is strictly rational. I'd rather lower the 'standing out is bad' in this campaign than enforce it and have less interesting characters.
You don't need to be famous, but you also only have to keep your head down during missions/events. As a port town, Kintargo will have some degree of 'strange' passing through its doors daily.
Hmm... I'll admit, I'm tempted.
What's your policy on Unchained classes?
EDIT: Nevermind. Read the chargen rules more closely. Derp.
There's no unchained version of Zen Archer, right? So if I want to do something like a skald/zen archer, I gotta do un-unchained monk? Or is there a 3rd party version of it, similar to the unchained ninja?
Interested... with Rakhel... still working on equipment and background but the basics are pretty much done... Hope you like.
Dotting, This should be fun.
@Alex: You'd have to use Chained Monk if you wanted Zen Archer (which is incredibly strong even without the unchained buffs). :)
Hey DM, what version of scarred witch doctor do you use?
Yeah, gotta decide if I want to do Zen Archer (which is one of my favorite classes, and I feel like bard/skald can only make it more fun) or a two-handed weapon-wielding Slayer.
@Teiidae: I honestly don't care for Scarred Witch Doctor at all. :(
Con as a casting stat opens up a whole can of worms, covering nearly all of the weaknesses inherent to a witch. I definitely do not like the idea of a full-con full-caster. I honestly lean towards 'no', because it's extremely problematic as a con class (and thus needs to be errata'd), but there's no healthy way to solve the innate problems with it and maintain the flavor, that I can see. :(
The errata butchered it (pun!), but it was ridiculously strong, previously, and is ridiculously strong now for different reasons as a result. I'd try to find a compromise, maybe. I'll be honest that it will be hard to work with, but if you can manage a great story-line with it, more power to you! :)
Oh that's fair enough, I just wanted to get a clarification. I know I will be playing tiefling of somesort, it's my first gestalt character so I need to figure out the other class.
This sounds like a really fun campaign I will make an application.
I've always wanted to try the Silver balladeer in Hell's Rebels and I might mix it with the Vigilante if you allow that.
Yup, I'll allow Vigilante, but I won't have ready access to the stuff in the books until it's on the SRD. As stated, it's sort of a necessity for cross-checking things when I don't quite recall what something does! I have a reasonable grasp of what it does and can do, though. :)
@JAF0: While not strictly RAW applicable, I've never seen a DM not allow Spirit Summoner to work with the unchained summoner. There are a few edge cases, but they're easily dodged. I'm not pushing you towards it, but just pointing out an option that you might have ignored, otherwise. :)
Off to bed, I'll take a look at more stuff in the morning!
Alright. Since I'm already playing a Shadow Puppeteer and two Skalds, the wackiest thing I can come up with is a juggling comedian. Which means either going vanilla or Overwhelming Soul Telekineticist/Aerokineticist (cool scout character, but basically useless in combat), or going with some sort of actual battle juggler (thinking specializing on throwing shields, rings, or torches so that he's never "armed" in the face of authorities). Either way, I'll be optimizing for both throwing tricks and acrobatic ones.
I'll defer to your personal rules on how throwing's handled, of course. Might potentially try to bring back my old juggler, though with a peppier story for a peppier city. But what I actually do (either Weapon Master Fighter/Ninja with startoss style or TWFing, Hurler Barbarian/Far Strike Monk with flurries, or Winding Path/Shield Champion Brawler with shield TWFing) in this case would depend on some questions to things:
General questions:
1. Flaw, or no flaw?
2. How much should we be investing in a perform skill? (some, or completely?)
I'll PM personal questions.
* * *
Although this would also be the perfect campaign for an "Inquisitor of fun" (e.g. Cayden, Arshea, Shelyn...)
Okay! I have something up. And I really like it. And I hope you pick me :D
Khotsu Al-Anaar
@DM: I'm working on a character that would look like Mr. Satan, maybe, from Dragon Ball Z. I'd like to use Bard (Celebrity) and Bloodrager (maybe Crossblooded, if allowed). Would that be okay? The guy basically thinks he's the last cookie of the bag and is a big ruffian, some type of local Kintargo celebrity as a "professional brawler" of the fight/wrestling clubs.
Here is the start of my application. I have settled for the Silver balladeer bard, but I like to use either the Vigilante or Mysterious avenger swashbuckler as the second class. stats might change a little but the basics of her is ready.
Ticaria Imoroa 22 years, height 5.6 ft., weight 140 lbs.
Female ifrit silver balladeer/vigilante 1
NG/CG Medium native outsider
Init: +6, Sense darkvision, perception: +4
Defense:
AC: 15, Touch: 12, Flat-footed: 13
Hp: 9 (1d8+1)
Fort: +1, Ref: +4, Will: +2,
Offense:
Speed: 30 ft.
Melee:
Ranged:
Spell-like ability 1/day: Hypnotize DC 13
Bard spells known
1st (2)- Silent image DC 14,
Cantrip - Detect magic, read magic, prestidigitation,
Statistics
Str: 16, Dex: 14, Con: 12, Int: 12, Wis: 10, Cha: 17
Base atk: 1 CMB: 4 CMD: 16
Feats:
Skills 1x8: Acrobatics (1) +6, climb (1) +7, knowledge local (1) +6, bluff (1) +7, disguise (1) +7, intimidate (1) +7, knowledge religion (1) +5, perception +4,
Background: Perform string (1) +7, knowledge history (1) +5
Traits: Star struck (Strea Vestori), ear for music (string),
SQ:
Languages: Common, ignan, abyssal,
Ticaria Imoroa is not a native Kintagan she was borned and lived the first decade of her life in Varasia. Her parents was kind of an odd couple, her father, Jonah was a warpriest in the church of Shelyn based in Magnimar, he was often traveling to spread the word Shelyn’s and apprehend offenders of her faith. Her mother, Shalaye was a varisian bard who Jonah arrested for stealing from his camp one night, she however had a silver tongue and quickly taked her way out of the situation and into the priest’s heart. They married shortly after returning to Magnimar and a year later Ticaria was born.
From a young age, Ticaria was a wild child and had trouble fiding peace, unless her mother placed her close to an open fire and played on her violin, which seemed to lull her into sleep. As she grew, she became more restless and started showing signs she might have an affinity with fire, Shalaye decided to teach her how to play on the family’s heirloom instrument, a silver violin, which Ticaria showed a great talent for and seemed to help her control her ancient heritage. When she plays, she is able hypnotize people almost completely as long as she plays.
At the age of 10 Jonah was offered a place in Kintargo’s church to Shelyn working to train a new generation of warpriests directly under Zachrin Vhast and they moved here. Ticaria had troubles setting into her new way of life, Jonah shared this at church and Zachrin offered her a chance to work at the Songbird’s hall playing her music to sooth the attendants and as payment, he would educate her.
One day around her 19th year, while boringly playing her music, Strea Vestori in a beaten up tiefling child, who had been attacked by a group of asmodean worshippers. Strea was complaining their place in the chelish society and how unfairly they are being treated for their unwanted heritage. Something about female tiefling’s look and problems spoke to Ticaria and she wanted nothing more than her attention.
Inspired by Strea and the injustice many non-human races suffer in Kintago, she began to fight back against the chelish loyalist and asmodean worshippers. She adopted the persona of Shelyn’s Avenger fighting back. She has often helped Strea in the Devil’s Nursery but she has been too afraid to show her face and feelings for the tiefling, she is afraid that the age different will make the tiefling look on her emotion as nothing more than a childish adoration. She uses her bardic spells to create the illusion she is home either sleeping or practicing her music, while she is out patrolling.
Lately she has not seen Strea when she has been in the Devil’s Nursery and as a result, she joins the demonstration as Ticaria hoping to see if Strea is okay.
@Thunderbeard:
1: No mechanical benefit for taking a flaw/drawback. Rule of cool states that I have zero problem with taking disadvantages that fit the character.
2: It is not required, but is very slightly frowned upon.
* * *
Yup!
@Elegantly: I'll look over and send you a PM.
@Archlich: No problem with bits of fluffing and preening to get to the desired concept. No problems with Cross-blooded. I'll try to help find a place for him to help with the backstory, probably somewhere in Jarvis End, Y. Harbor, or Redroof, depending on 'upscale'.
@MordredofFairy: Handing over my nerd card: While I'm aware of the show and the concepts thereof, I have never seen the movie, nor read any of the media. It might be a good time to go down the rabbit hole of Psychic Duels, to some degree, though? (I haven't read up on them, and will totally take advice as to whether to steer clear or not; reasoning is more important than just a yes/no statement).
@Natalie: I'll look over and send you a PM.
Backlog: Check Rakhel and respond to concepts, story, and crunch via PM.
@ Hot DM: Sounds good I'm studying the Vigilante class and see how it works. I oversaw the bit about alignment and will work that out soon.
Hmm... This is intriguing... I'm in an active recruitment right now (and really don't have time for two new games) but if don't get into that game I have an idea for a female daring champion cavalier/bard that I'll probably submit (I should know today or tomorrow, hopefully)
Alrighty! I look forward to it. :)
Man I'm torn, Bard(Dervish Dancer) with Alchemist(Vivisectionist and Chirurgeon or Chirurgeon and Promethean Alchemist)?
Also I'm surprised by the amount of arabic-esque Character proposals.
If we want to RP as an older character, do we have to apply age penalties? I'm thinking of using one of my old characters and updating him-he's a 200-ish year old Dwarf, which would put him in the "old" category. The penalties could be a pain in the butt though.
Will we get to do musical battles a'la Scott Pilgrim vs the World, too? ^_^
(Just happened to run across one or two of them, and couldn't help but think of Bardic Combat- )
See. Now we both need to get in to this game, and have that happen.
If we form a band, what would our crazy energy monster be in the shape of?
I'd actually lean away from age modifiers anyway. :)
Just remember, older folks probably need a bit more work because they have a bit more 'history', if not 'experience'. Likewise, I find it difficult, as a player, to fill in the huge gaps of time for the older-lived races, simply by virtue of it taking them several human generations to become adults.
Man I'm torn, Bard(Dervish Dancer) with Alchemist(Vivisectionist and Chirurgeon or Chirurgeon and Promethean Alchemist)?
Hotaru and I have long disagreed on this, but I've always found Vivisectionist, flavor-wise, to be a poor choice for good-aligned campaign. But I'd say think about whether you'd be someone who enjoys studying life by cutting it apart, or creating it
If we want to RP as an older character, do we have to apply age penalties? I'm thinking of using one of my old characters and updating him-he's a 200-ish year old Dwarf, which would put him in the "old" category. The penalties could be a pain in the butt though.
If you're using an older character, you might also want to think about why he's at level 1. Never went to war, or just a hundred years of no combat/training while he "retired" and ran a shop?
And the most min-maxed character I ever built was Venerable. You just gotta find a way to use those mental bonuses and ignore physical stuff.
@ Thunderbeard. I can see both arguments for vivisectionist, my only issue is my indecisiveness. The vivi is pretty straightforward in terms of what it does,etc. Now I really like the idea of the Promethean, I'm just not sure if it's worth losing out on bombs and mutagens(although you can regain mutagens via discovery), aside from that I'm not sure about managing the Homunculus,protecting it, arming it and most importantly hiding it. Might be a bit more to deal with than other "pet classes" even more so via pbp.
As for the scale of the adventure, this is one of the few adventures I know basically nothing about other than Hell's vengeance is the evil companion. As far as alignment goes, my character was going to be an emotional Mr.Hyde like character, torn between redemption for past mistakes and his true nature. Which fits nicely since one of his deities, Sarenrae is all about redemption.
@Thunder/Teiidae: Yup! He already asked me about it, and I stick by the fact that name - and flavor - aside, Vivisectionist doesn't actually have any predispositions towards evil. I mean, look at base alchemist, who hurls fiery conconctions into crowds of people. Deathwatch (Status for anyone you look at!), getting Heal mostly for free, the ability to transform and even enlighten animals, topping it off with the ability to regrow most of an entire person or animal... How could you view this archetype as evil? Just because of the names? Pffft.
@Thunder/Alex: That's mostly why I lean away from 'rewarding' players for going a bit older. -1 to Str/Dex/Con for +1 to Int/Wis/Cha can be a serious (and unfair) boon to point buy.
Oh dear.
I've had the idea for a Dervish Dancer/Fighter forever but you are going to have such a ton of great applications for this. Ugh.
Three questions:
1. Do you allow 3.5 Prestige classes? The Fochulan Lyricist is looking pretty tempting right now with a gestalt bard/druid. As are the seeker of the cosmic song, etc?
2. Is there any issue duplicating the personalities of the singers of yesteryear? A tielfling bard imitating Meatloaf as the Beast from his 1991 album Back Into Hell is looking really appealing right now, especially combined with an oracle of fire. And I can turn phantom chariot into a flaming stylized demonic Harley pretty easy.... Or a bard/rogue named Jean Valjean....
3. For 3rd party material, are you allowing psionics?
@Hotaru: "Unlike a chirurgeon, a vivisectionist’s goals are not related to healing, but rather to experimentation and knowledge that most people would consider evil." That's where I get the "evil" from.
@Stormcrow: It's actually Fochlucan Lyrist (a common mistake!) And put that terrible horrible no good very broken PrC away right now. There's no Fochlucan College on Golarion, but I don't see why a bard/druid wouldn't accomplish the same flavor without giving you double-full spell progresson and top BAB?