The sense I got was for the bard/skald part to be permanent; if you want to pursue a prestige class, you have to qualify for it without use of the bard/skald side of the gestalt. See this post for where I pretty much got the sense from.
And I'm continually expanding Zeb's background - answering Hotaru's Q's now. :)
Yup set on choice. Bard/druid animal speaker/pack lord. Now for the fluff.
@Trawets: Bard/Skald can go into an appropriate archetype, such as Shadowdancer. There may need to be adjustments, and you'll have to run it by me first. The other side cannot use your bard side to qualify for archetypes. :)
Rule of Thumb: if you think of laughing maniacally, you should ask.
The first sentence of the post says we might be allowed to do it, but it depends on the class. So I guess my question becomes is sentinel/evangelist fitting enough (that's probably 1 level of sentinel then evangelist choosing sentinel as the favored class, though I might go pure sentinel as well).
How does bonuses to perform stack with versatile performance and bonuses to diplomacy? Do you get both? For example a Geisha could get half level to both diplomacy and perform (oratory), combine it with a Museborn Aasimar and Defic Obedience (Shelyn) and you are looking at +7 to perform and +3 to diplomacy at level 1, so at level 2, would you get +10, +7 or +3?
You say no access to early prestige classes through sneakiness... Does this count as sneakiness? It sure incrases your sneak(ing)... 1 level of vivisectionist (or maybe unchained rogue) and then 3 levels wizard, witch or sorcerer before taking arcane trickster for the rest. Arcane Trickster on one side and bard on the other might actually be kinda cool... I don't suppose you'll allow wizards to alter their casting stat to charisma as well?
Just want to point out my submission Melissa Al-Shams who ended up at the bottom of page 2 :)
Speaking of Agile... Is Deadly Agility allowed?
In my experience the die is not what really matters with a kukri crit build, it's all about the modifier bonuses you can get your hand on.
@Mordred: It's because Scimitar gets you +Dex to damage easier. But you're right; agile+dual wield is the more powerful variant, though it doesn't become affordable until level 10 or so, likely more than halfway through the campaign.
Unless Deadly agility is allowed, in which case it's possible from level one as a human fighter.
Yeah, for a very long time Melissa will be doing 1d4 damage. It'll get better when she can rub some gold on the problem but until then DR is going to be *terrible*. Piranha strike should allow her to be useful in combat though. I just really wanted a slicer and dicer and the way her fluff pushed her kinda reinforces that.
I've updated my submission here. Now with extravagant backstory! It's a bit long, but the guiding questions were quite extensive. :)
Isn't deadly agility a Path of War feat?
Now if the other side of the gestalt was a warpriest... That would become a terror really fast. A heck of a lot of synergy. Doesn't fit the character though.. too devout.
Should I do a ten minute background?
Yeah, for a very long time Melissa will be doing 1d4 damage. It'll get better when she can rub some gold on the problem but until then DR is going to be *terrible*. Piranha strike should allow her to be useful in combat though. I just really wanted a slicer and dicer and the way her fluff pushed her kinda reinforces that.
Er...
Level 4, you're trucking Weapon Specialization, +1 Weapons, and up to 1d4+7/1d4+5 damage; level 5, weapon training and improved performance bring you up to 1d4+9/1d4+7—and at this point you're a decent slice/dicer.
Not amazing, but fighters always have some goodies in the bag, and being able to conceal your weapons easily might be helpful in the early game. And you could just stick to casting bard spells.
If you're really frustrated about damage output, though, consider Weapon Master Fighter and/or Archaeologist Bard (though the flavor might change a bit).
Weapon Master fighter kicks your weapon training up a notch. At level 4, Advanced Weapon Training: Focused Weapon increases your damage *exactly as a Warpriest* to 1d6 (and scaling higher). By level 7 or so, you can afford Gloves of Dueling, which with Trained Grace gives you a +8 to damage rolls (if you use Dex to damage, Trained Grace isn't useful, and you're only at +4, but this is one way to avoid reliance on sex-to-dam)
Archaeologist is a bit game-ier, and thus might be foul play. But it changes your Dervish Dance bonuses to Luck bonuses, which will be useful if another bard inspires courage in the party (and can be bumped further with the infamous Fortune's Favored trick, but again, only if that *makes sense* with the character).
I didn't say she was bad or I'm frustrated thunderbeard. Thanks for the tips. Don't want to derail the thread anymore.
You leave a thread for three hours...
Re: Joke: I caught touches of that, but it's made a little awkward by the fact that a lot of people treat it as mainland Cheliax. I've even seen a recruitment that banned -silver- in a city whose lead export is... you guessed it.
Re: Mute Bard: Or go with Oracle (Available via VMC). It's -okay- to use your instrument instead of voice, but it will have no 'crunch' effect. If something -would- silence you, you find yourself unable to use verbal components, anyway, regardless of if your instrument should be.
Re: Names: Stop namedropping! ;~; I don't know who any of these things are!
@Oyzar: Bard can easily grow into Evangelist, Shadowdancer, Etc. It just has to be clearly related to the type of bard you are. You can see further up where I responded to questions like that (for example, the bard does not count for arcane trickster unless you're a Sandman or the like, and therefore using just bard to reach it.)
You just have to meet all of the prerequisites on one side of your gestalt, as normal.
You can go as light or dark as you want, but your 'fluff' is what will get you in or not more likely than not. :) If I cringe it's probably bad. If you evoke emotion, it's good. If I can imagine your character and what I can do with it, it's great. I fully encourage combining crunch and fluff to create a cohesive story. It will play a major roll -later- in the picking. Just, when people offer me crunch without fluff, I've got nothing to do with it right now. :)
Sentinel/Evangelist being taken together has inherent... flaws. Like that half of the class features overlap, and I'm not letting you have both evangelist and sentinel boons. This is a laughing maniacally interaction.
I use the ranks and attribute bonus of the perform, but otherwise use your bonuses for the related skill, specifically. So holding a masterwork violin has no impact on how good you are at lying, though having a trait that grants you bonuses to bluff does. Similarly, a Chirurgeon/Vivisectionist would be able to use the ranks and int mod of Knowledge(Nature) in the place of Heal's Ranks and Wis Mod, while applying the Skill Focus (Heal) still.
In your example, you would gain +7 to perform and +3 to diplomacy.
Deadly Agility isn't available; we have plenty of dex-based submissions on the table at the moment, with Strength not getting much representation. Deadly Agility would make that even more lopsided. :)
ToDo: Check Azih's character. Check Qunnessaa's character.
Zebulon has had some background and skills updating done - the latter trading the skill point in Survival for one in PS (Sailor), which is more appropriate for the character's background.
I don't know what VMC is or what oracle mystery would fit. There is, however, a charisma based kineticist and if you think of aether as force, it fits well.
@Zebulon: I'll take a look, adding you to the list of everything ever. :P
@Zayne: VMC is Variant Multiclassing. You give up several feats in order to gain drawbacks and benefits of a class. In the case of oracle, you start with a curse, which could easily be Deafened. :) As for Mysteries... who knows! Aether and Force are very much related in my mind, though not quite the same in all ways. You can find the rules for VMC Here.
ToDo: Azih's Character, Qunnessaa's Character, Saratov's Character, Zebulon.
Re: VMC BARD/MONK: Well, technically, I'm not against a Skald/Monk taking VMC Bard. That being said, similar class features will overlap, rather than stack. (Bardic Knowledge if Skald doesn't trade it, there's a high likelihood another player will have a better inspire courage (though possibly not...), Performance Rounds would be kept separate, including bolstering them with extra perform separately...)
So, I guess it's more a 'you shouldn't', because you won't get much. :)
Dotting in, thinking over a concept.
My build will definitely be focusing on strength as I level.
I have backstory. The idea is a bard\keneticist, focusing on music to incite allies and hamper enemies with some aether blasts for offense. Probably going to combine elemental annihilator and overwhelming soul for some offense and charisma synergy.
Michael feared he would have to live in silence for the rest of his life, until the day he attended a musical performance near the famous Kintargo Opera House. The Opera House itself was for the wealthy and affluent. It was also artistically above most of the common people. But they also hosted and funded a traveling troupe that brought much more lighter tones and entertainment to the masses in Chelaix. But Michael didn't know any of that though and neither did it matter at the time. He was too caught up in the performance. There was one who especially stood out. Shensen, a beautiful and graceful half elf with a stunning voice, impressive range, and could dance like the fey under the full moon. She was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. But more than that, without even using words the music was able to stir the emotions and feelings of the crowd. It spoke to him. It conjured images in his mind of flying high like a dragon, dancing in a palace, or heroes in an epic battle. In that moment he had an idea. Maybe music could allow him to speak too.
After the show he snuck into the backstage area to talk with the performers in the hopes that one might teach him. Or he tried to at least. He was so excited he forgot he couldn't speak for moment and gesticulated wildly while opening and closing his mouth. Only one in the group seemed to understand what he was trying to say. A young girl he hadn't seen on stage appeared from around his new idol, Shensen. Her name was Serena. She was Shensen's protege and understudy. And he didn't think it possible, but she also seemed more beautiful then even Shensen. Plus she was his age. After a good laugh at the boys antics and a few drawings, it became obvious to her what the mute child hoped to learn. He wanted to play music. The troupe of performers were only there for a few weeks to finalize their acts but they agreed to teach him what they could in that time. Michael met the performers everyday they were there and absorbed every medium of expression they could teach. Silent comedy, wind instruments, percussion, keyboard. He tried them all but the ones he excelled at were dance and string and he picked them up at astounding speed. His drive to learn was impressive. But what was more impressive was how well he could put himself into the music. All musicians were able to illicit emotions in their audience just by playing the music on the sheet. This child didn't just play it though. He owned it. He played it in such a way it seemed completely different. There was magic behind it. What they had before them was a bard in the making, and they couldn't let an opportunity like this slip away. On their last day they offered to bring him along. He couldn't say physically yes but the way he danced after made it perfectly clear.
From then on life couldn't have been better. He had finally found his voice through music. He found people that actually heard him. He also found he had another incredible ability. The traveling troupe was always well protected by some of the best warriors available in Kintargo and a lot of the performers were also no push over. But either things were going very bad or the bandits that attacked were very well prepared. The troupes defenders were incapacitated and the bandits were moving on to the performers. For most of the fight, Michael hid with the rest of the non-combatants. He knew a little self-defense but not enough to defend against experienced bandits. So when the call came to flee, he was ready to go. As the performers scattered to escape the bandits, a familiar voice cried out in pain and fear. He didn't need to look to know what happened. They had Serena. Panic drove Michael to do something no sane person would consider an option. He played. He poured all his anger and emotion into song and played it at the bandits. They laughed...for a little while. Then the music started to hurt. It caused them sharp pain in their skull, broke their eardrums and disoriented them. Then, as his song of woe and rage reached its peak, the finally note took on a physical presence, blowing away several bandits. But through it all Serena remained perfectly safe. Michael was more than a little surprised at what he did and why. He learned two things about himself that day. He found out he could manipulate aether using music and that he was in love. While he could express his emotions and basic ideas to others, Serena seemed to be the only one who knew exactly what he was saying. Just by playing a few notes she could translate to others what he could never say himself, like they had their own language. Like they knew the other on level deeper than anyone else.
While their lives seemed to be going quite well, dark clouds were brewing on the horizon. And it all started with the arrival of Barzillai Thrune. With House Thrune came a number of changes, including martial law. Many were not happy, and those that weren't were gathering at Aria Park to protest. And sense Barzillai had taken over the opera house as his home, Shensen and the other performers were unusually conspicuous. Neither Serena or Michael had seen her in a long time since traveling Chelaix and this seemed the best opportunity.
I've settled on writing up an Arcane Duelist/Swashbuckler gestalt combo--in essence, a Diva-in-training who favours her elven mother's stylish longsword style. I'll post with her alias soon.
I would have been up for a Bard-only game but not where gestalt is involved. It does give me ideas though!
Quick question: does a half-elf's Multitalented racial trait mean I can take 2 favoured class bonuses when levelling up in Gestalt?
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@Nostrus: I'd thought about just bards with non-gestalt, but I figured I'd get far fewer submissions. And maybe less interesting ones. :)
@Dragoncat: No. You must still choose a singular favored class bonus from amongst all that apply. That means you may choose one of the following (For a Swash-bard): +1 HP, +1 HP, +1 SP, +1 SP, +1 Performance Round per day, or +1/4 use of Charmed Life per day. At least for me. :)
Alrighty then. Thanks for clearing that up. :)
Speaking of which...
She's finally done!
Meet Lia Vantas, my Bard (Arcane Duelist)/Swashbuckler gestalt; a consummate professional actress with a loving family & a grudge against Thrune!
Well I am completely blanking on concepts, somehow, so I'm bowing out. Good luck, all.
@Oyzar: Bard can easily grow into Evangelist, Shadowdancer, Etc. It just has to be clearly related to the type of bard you are. You can see further up where I responded to questions like that (for example, the bard does not count for arcane trickster unless you're a Sandman or the like, and therefore using just bard to reach it.)
You just have to meet all of the prerequisites on one side of your gestalt, as normal.
Do I have to take 7 levels of bard first, or is 5 sufficient as the BAB requirement will come from the other side in order to progress into Sentinel? Having to take 7 first removes a lot of attractiveness of this option.
You can go as light or dark as you want, but your 'fluff' is what will get you in or not more likely than not. :) If I cringe it's probably bad. If you evoke emotion, it's good. If I can imagine your character and what I can do with it, it's great. I fully encourage combining crunch and fluff to create a cohesive story. It will play a major roll -later- in the picking. Just, when people offer me crunch without fluff, I've got nothing to do with it right now. :)
I'll see what I come up with it.
Sentinel/Evangelist being taken together has inherent... flaws. Like that half of the class features overlap, and I'm not letting you have both evangelist and sentinel boons. This is a laughing maniacally interaction.
I quite disagree with you that this is a laughing manically interaction. In order to take Evangelist normally you simply have to give up a single level of progression. The class is simply very good, maybe too good... This is the case for Sentinel or for pretty much any other class. Though it might be easiest to notice for prestige classes as you'll get the full benefit on both prestige classes in 11 levels no matter which prestige class it is. For Sentinel you would normally have to give up full BAB and D10 HD in order to get this interaction, though this is gestalt, which might push this interaction over the top. It's your game, so you are free to disallow it, I guess I have to pursue other options... The Evangelist boons of Shelyn would have let me get back some of the "bardyness" I would lose by taking sentinel in the first place.
I use the ranks and attribute bonus of the perform, but otherwise use your bonuses for the related skill, specifically. So holding a masterwork violin has no impact on how good you are at lying, though having a trait that grants you bonuses to bluff does. Similarly, a Chirurgeon/Vivisectionist would be able to use the ranks and int mod of Knowledge(Nature) in the place of Heal's Ranks and Wis Mod, while applying the Skill Focus (Heal) still.
In your example, you would gain +7 to perform and +3 to diplomacy.
This seems to really nerf any and all bonuses to perform for little to no reason (specifically Defic Obedience (Shelyn), Prodigy and Skill Focus). May I suggest take the higher of the two bonuses instead (or even the RAW/RAI version of letting the perform bonuses be the only one that counts ever)? It'll let people actually be able to put some effort into improving versatile performance rather than being incentiveized to trade it away... Removing all mechanical benefit people get from following the god of art and music (that most other GMs would give you) seem especially unfortunate. It'll also considerably reduce the effectiveness of several bard archtypes, for example Geisha... I agree that stacking both seems a bit much though. For Masterwork Tools, it doesn't always make sense... A violin should probably not make you more diplomatic, but dancing shoes could make you more athletic and drums could make it easier to rear animals.
Currently tossing around the idea of going Sandman into arcane trickster vs simply going arcane trickster on the other side since my sentinel idea (and specifically worshiping Shelyn) doesn't seem to work very well...
Oyzar, even with that nerf, Shelyn's obedience is one of the best. (+4 to Countersong, Distraction, and ALL crafting checks, for a single feat? Daaaang). There's a TON of mechanical benefit there; the difference is that you can't use it to get +4 to every single skill for the price of one feat.
As someone who owns masterwork dancing shoes IRL (and is also kind of a bard), I can confidently say that they do not make me better at jumping, balancing, or flying.
no matter how damn well made my tap shoes were they never made me hoof any faster. I wish!
Re: Prestige Classes: HD, Skills, BAB, and Feats should be things you can treat both sides as part of.
Re: Evangelist + Sentinel: Having read up on it, I'm just going to not allow Evangelist + Prestige. Because it breaks things. There's a reason it has a suggested list for what makes sense to be an Evangelist. I'm not going to strictly enforce it, but I believe it's against the intent of the ability (and class) to possibly turn your character into a Wizard3/Cleric3/Mystic Theurge4/Evangelist10(+10 MT)... which would mean level 9 spells on both sides. [edit]+9 MT, meaning only level 16 in both, so not quite level 9 spells.[/edit] And that's just one of many not-okay interactions, IMO. Especially when you try to grab two types of Deific Obediences with it (which are already extremely good uses of feats). This isn't a single instance of one laughing maniacally, but many, in my opinion. Sorry!
Re: Versatile Skills: Word-of-God (James Jacobs, though not official errata) is to do it the way I've listed. At home games I'm much more flexible with it. Here... I'm not a huge fan of someone getting +4 Shelyn, +2 Prodigy, +2 Tools, on 4+ skills at level 6, for two feats and ~100 gold. Especially since this becomes +10 around level 10. (And can go as high as 16 with a skill focus). Bard is really, really good for skills (probably the best class in the game, if you don't trade away Versatile Performance), which is made even more crazy by Background Skills starting you with two free Performs.
Re: Tools: Sure! A pair of good shoes can help you with acrobatics (same for gloves in some cases!), as can a drum work well for certain animals, or even a string instrument of unparalleled beauty make diplomacy with nobles easier! But these are all separate functions, not identical functions. The sticks from a Masterwork Drum Set do not work as a Masterwork Crow Bar simply by virtue of being 'similar enough to work'. :)
Re: Worshiping Shelyn: That's... an odd way of putting it. She has one of the strongest Obediences even without versatile performance. She's a really great god for a huge variety of characters as well (all who live, love beauty!). It makes me sad that she isn't a 'good idea', just because a feat and class-interaction didn't work the way you wanted it to. :(
Honestly my one hesitation about Shelyn is that she's such a big deal in Kintargo, all the cool kids and avant-garde artists are doing edgier, less-mainstream empyreal lords.
Hey, man, I was worshiping Shelyn before it was cool.
Should we be filling in roles and things on the spreadsheet, or is that a GM thing?
Hey Mordred - I sent a message to Hotaru about the spreadsheet too. I'm not sure what's missing on my character, but I'd be happy to complete it ;)
About deities: Milani all the way! Vive la revolucion! I like how they describe the way she behaves towards her main enemy deities (Asmodeus and Zon Kuthon), since they're obviously more powerful than she is. Very creative writing :)
I see a flying Jack in your alias list, thunderbeard, but he's only a Shield Brawler at this time? Did you just make your dot more verbose, or did I miss the crunch?(I'm helping out a bit with linking stuff and filling in basics on the sheet)
Right. Totally different acrobat/juggler character, but I like the name, and will repurpose the alias once I finish writing it up.
As for a deity: you seem to be very community-minded? But community deities tend to be lawful. I'm not really sure.
Oyzar, even with that nerf, Shelyn's obedience is one of the best. (+4 to Countersong, Distraction, and ALL crafting checks, for a single feat? Daaaang). There's a TON of mechanical benefit there; the difference is that you can't use it to get +4 to every single skill for the price of one feat.
As someone who owns masterwork dancing shoes IRL (and is also kind of a bard), I can confidently say that they do not make me better at jumping, balancing, or flying.
I do not agree at all that this alone is a good feat. Boosting the craft skill has a fairly minor value in terms of time to craft and hence value. It's much smaller than for example Craft Wonderous Item. Distraction and countersong are similarly really niche abilities.
Still, the rest of Shelyn's boons are great (even if the intent of her 2nd evangelist boon is similarly nerfed by this change). Those you pay for by picking levels in their respective classes though (Sentinel is a bad version of the fighter if you don't count for the boons).
I don't think I'll actually pick any other skill-boosting feats (you don't get a lot of feats and some have to be used for other things as well). It would be nice if this actually helped with what it makes sense for the character to be good at. It doesn't sound like I'll be able to change your mind though, so I'll just have to deal with the mechanical nerf if I choose to go down this path.
Sure Shelyn is main stream, but I often feel that the more mainstream for a campaign your character the more integrated into the background it'll be and the more immersive the whole experience will become.
And Ozyar: by getting +4 to all craft skills, you're effectively doubling the speed at which you craft everything, including magic items. With the massive bonuses to Distraction and Countersong, your party is effectively immune to illusions and sonic effects (as long as you know which enemies are likely to attack you with either, though distraction is great to throw down right after an enemy casts major image, phantasmal web, scintillating pattern etc.) If it's not your style, no worries, but it's still the most powerful tool in the craft/performer's min-maxing-for-flavor arsenal.
Regarding aliases, I think the GM means 'please don't post with your actual alias that you're using for your character, unless you've already used it enough that it can't be deleted anymore, or want to stick around in case one of the players drops from the game.' I could be wrong about that.
Hell's Rebels is an AP being run (in this case) with Gestalt rules--Gestalt is an old alternative ruleset from the days of 3.5 Edition.
There are quite a lot of good (non evil) diety choices for this campaign. The AP Player Guide has done a really great job of throwing down a *lot* of hooks. And Kintargo is a great setting to make the different options seem grounded and actual. Paizo know what they're doing when it comes to setting and APs that's for sure.
Edit: Heck It would be interesting to run this with a group of demon worshipers wanting to stick it to the devils. Only with a really good group though. Chaotic Evil is hard to play.
@LetcherMan69
Suli is not on the list of available races as it is an uncommon race, the allowed races are core and feature with the exceptions mentioned. That means races from chapter 1 and 2 in Advanced race guide, unless specfic allowed by the DM.
Re: Filling in the roles on the spreadsheet (and the rest, such as deity, race, etc.): If you do, try to put it in not-black 'ink' so I can go back over it and make sure my perceptions align with yours.
My grading system is roughly: '.5 = capable or clear choices made to be good at this in the future', and '1 = clearly focused on this, and a solid pick 'now'.'
The number of 'ratings' you wind up with, does not have any impact on your acceptance, until it reaches 'the wire'. I'm more likely to pull to fill in sizable gaps, than to simply choose, if no one is an obviously excellent choice. :)
@Bard v. Skald: Skald was more of an 'afterthought' for me. But it also has some ridiculously cool options, beyond the basic Skald (which suffers from a lot of negative interactions with non-standard adventure paths, and non-standard party building). But the archetypes were neat enough for me to keep, because after you get past 'raging song', you get to a sweet spot where it feels a lot like a bard archetype. :)
@Archlich: The 'Complete' was filled in by someone else. I personally don't consider anyone complete until we near the end and I'm double-checking things. Heck, I'm still conversing with many of you! :)
Re: Empyreals and Religion: Paizo does an excellent job with their gods and religion. Between gods who feel like they were characters before 'ascending' and conceptual deities, deities who stole their power and those things that rushed to fill the void when they were lost... it's really, really cool.
That being said, you don't have to be religious. From atheist, to apatheist, to secret, to devout to polytheist, your character's interactions with religion are an excellent spice to add a powerful dose of flavor to your character. :)
If you're curious as to what sold me on pathfinder deities, Take a Look. Just scroll down to that Paladin Code. Iomedae is amazing. :)
@More Deific Obedience stuff: It's not just +4 to craft and performance, though. At 12, it adds spells to your character, not huge. At 16 it adds a standard action 'summon an azata, with telepathy, that does whatever you say for 1 minute, unless you tell it to do something you really, really shouldn't.', and at 20, it adds 'Holy and Shock' to any weapon you have for 6 rounds per day as a free action. Taking a prestige class speeds this up, or changes what it is and speeds it up! Deific Obediences are strong feats, akin to a skill focus or weapon focus that at higher levels scales up in a way related to your deity. They replaced Eldritch Heritage as my favorite way to add flavor to a character, when I took actual notice of them.
Re: Hipster Deities: I like the empyreal lords (and all their friends!) to at least some degree. My difficulty comes in the Gaping Void that is who and what they actually are. One person pointed out already that the 'mystery' of them is part of the selling point, and that arriving at an agreement between player and DM is perhaps better than having a mostly-fixed position deity like Shelyn. Again, though, some faiths are more represented than others based on the location and book. If your character doesn't like that... how will they strive to change it? :)
@Letcher:
1: I do not want to be responsible for homeless/orphaned aliases. As a person with more than a dozen characters who have lost their home, I don't want to contribute to that any more than I have to. :)
2: Practice Makes Perfect is a trait that I added explicitly to aid characters who did not want to focus on charisma. This was intended to help shore up the opportunities for say... a wizard/bard, where the egregious statistical difficulties would be a serious damper on your build. With it, you can be a passable bard by only spending 2 points from your point buy, and still be able to spend many points on the things that would matter to a fighter, druid, what have you.
3: Suli are fine, though they're on the strong side. I'd ask to weaken it slightly, but I don't really see where to pull from, without disabling part of their cool features. They'll be a 'harder sell'. :)
4: Always. Following the same rules as a normal character would follow in doing so.
5: Hell's Rebels is one of the most recent APs, though there will be some homebrew, because I can. :)
Re: Dragoncat's response: What he said!
@Azih: It wouldn't 'work' that way, and would require a lot of work on the DM. If they want to run it (similar to a Hellknight Wrath of the Righteous), it'd be really cool, but 'want to watch the world burn as it slides into the abyss' doesn't work for a few reasons, here.
@Natalie: As with all things, folks can feel free to ask about something. The worst you'll hear is 'no, with an explanation'. And if I don't give you a good enough explanation, I expect conversation, because your opinion is valid, and I may simply not be seeing it. :)