Gramork -- I thought we said vigor, someone looked this up -- look at the old thread.
Also just gonna roll my vigor now quickly.
Planning on trying my hands at pathfinder's CoDzilla.
Also, I just want to make clear I'm not railroading, the characters can explore favorite Dark Sun sites if like, for example, you really want to visit Ur Draxa or something. Also, I really don't run stuff 'out of the box', so to speak -- I'll have to do some adaptation for Dark Sun, but I also replace maps I don't like and stuff too.
Cuan, I think there is a lizardfolk of sorts in the Conversion guide. The Dray I think, I'm partial to reptilian races. Probably change the give lizardfolk a little stat boost, minimum 1d4 bite, a little extra NA and a climb speed instead of swim and you should be good.
The issue I have with the Dray is they are an artifical species as opposed to the Ssurran who are a natural species.
@Sebecloki: I'm perfectly fine with coming up with something. I assume you'd want 18-19 RP range, like the other races?
I think the lizardfolk would be a great start.
+2 Str & Con
+1 NA
30 ft. speed & swim speed
1d3 bite and two 1d4 claws
Like Teiidae said, the swim speed would have to go. Considering they move about in broad daylight I'm thinking something that helps them deal with the heat. So some sort of bonus on Fort saves vs heat and perhaps they can last longer without drinking before thirst related issues set in.
The Desert Stride trait seen on the Kasatha race probably also fits. It would allow the to ignore non-magical difficult terrain in desert environments. That would directly replace the swim speed.
In addition, upping their NA to +2 or +3 and their bite to 1d4 or even 1d6 would probably work.
As for their stats, I'd say it's more or less fine. Best I can think of to change it is add a +2 Wis and a -2 to either Int or Cha.
At a 1d4 bite and a +2 NA that would still only be 14 RP though. I'm using the Desert Runner racial trait for the heat bonuses here.
Members of this race receive a +4 racial bonus on Constitution checks and Fortitude saves to avoid fatigue and exhaustion, as well as any other ill effects from running, forced marches, starvation, thirst, and hot or cold environments.
I'm not quite sure what to add to bring them up to the level of the other races. I'd need to think on that but I'm open to suggestions.
yeah, try to make it close to the other races.
also, I missed a question above about before/after Prism Pentad timeline -- how do people feel about this? I was originally going to say after, but I could also see how before might be cool -- especially the ability to visit ur draxa. I like the post-pentad political situation in Tyr more. Maybe we can do it after Kalak's death but before Borys'?
Let's have some players weigh in before I decide.
I know pretty much nothing about Dark Sun, so it doesn't matter to me. Speaking of, does anyone have a decent source/link where I might get a better understanding of the specific history and important events in DS. Might help a bit when making my backstory.
I think I'll take the new set of stats. 45 point buy
There's a little primer PDF on the first page, it's got Darksun Crunch and Fluff.
Side note Sebcloki, would you be willing to allow my character to utilize his kinetic blasts as a sword cane for the purpose of the blind sword master perk, in regards to kinetic blade? I have fluff in mind to justify it, but it's your call.
@Gramork conversion doc. has a gazetter attached. Also check Wikipedia and the 4chan wiki, they both have good quick setting overviews.
@Shizuka -- that's fine.
Thank you very much. Would there happen to be any martial orders in Nibenay?
Philo--Looks like you rolled vigor but only 5 stats, so I think you need one more roll.
I know pretty much nothing about Dark Sun, so it doesn't matter to me. Speaking of, does anyone have a decent source/link where I might get a better understanding of the specific history and important events in DS. Might help a bit when making my backstory.
Very condensed....
Blue Age
Lots of water. Only halflings exist. Druidic Magic is used.
Green Age
From halflings other races, like men, elves, and dwarves, come. Rajaat is a Wizard, with mad dreams of returning to the Blue age. He invents preservation magic, which uses life without harming it. He teaches this...but secretly invents defiler magic. This magic uses life as fuel for the spell, destroying the environment pretty much forever.
Cleansing Wars
Rajaat raises up twelve human champions, teaches them defiler magic, and sends them out to genocide everything. It almost works. Orcs, gnomes, pixies, goblins...all go extinct. Some races, like the dwarves, even put up a really good fight.
The wars end when Rajaat’s champions learn that mankind is next on the chopping block. They rebel and magically lock Rajaat away.
Dark Sun
In this setting, the champions of Rajaat were the rulers of city states. They rule with an iron fist. The most powerful of them, a literal dragon now, needs one thousand souls each year to keep Rajaat locked up.
The world is seriously screwed. Rampant defiler magic has left everything as a mad max desert. Water is a precious commodity. Metal is almost unheard of...again, due to the earth being ruined by defiler magic.
Druids have been trying to fix things, but rampant persecution has nearly wiped them out.
The Elemental Planes are seriously hurting.
The gods have all either died or left...
Maybe where we are?
Eventually a band of heroes kills a few of the champions of Rajaat and permanently locks Rajaat up. This has the unintended consequence of creating horrific storms and earthquakes. Power vacuums have left some city states experimenting with rulership.
Life still sucks, for everybody.
A few points...
* Dwarves have no hair. At all. They have a thing called a focus. It is what they do...be it making something, digging something, or killing something. Failure to do it makes them into the undead. They have one village left, over the ruins of their old capital. Sadly, they have lost the knowledge of their written language, though they are trying to relearn it.
* Elves are all about running, wild and free. Don’t trust an elf. Unless you’ve earned it...even then they are shifty bastards.
* There are half-giants, insect people, and lizard people.
* There are Muls. Sterile half-dwarves. As tall as a human, with the bulkiness of a dwarf. Usually bred as slaves. Only a half-giant can put punch them. They are pure bad-ass in every way.
Psionics is very common, everyone had a wild talent in 2e, I haven't checked how the conversion does that.
Metal is scarce, as is water.
Lots of gems.
Judge
Swift Action +2 Sense Motive (insight bonus)
Well. That seems somewhat useful. Untrained Sense Motive is now +7.
Wild Talents are on page 45 of the conversion...
= Distract
For my Prc I need to be able to cast spells from the thrist or sand domain.
Would you allow me to pick the thrist domain? A previous dm of mine converted it for my convenience
8th: Air of Dessication (Su): As a standard action, you can pull the water from any foe within 30 feet as a ranged touch attack. The dessication deals 1d6 points of nonlethal damage + 1 point for every two cleric levels you possess. In addition, due to the severe parchment, attempting to cast a spell with a verbal component requires a concentration check as if they were affected by a non-damaging spell. This effect last until they quench their thirst. You can use this ability a number of times per day equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
1 - Parching Touch
2 - Dessicate
3 - Tormenting Thirst
4 - Dispel Water
5 - Dessicate, Mass
6 - Symbol of Thirst
7 - Mephit Mob
8 - Horrid Wilting
9 - Energy Drain
The other domain I'd pick would be the sun.
Thanks for all the info Grunbaki, Sebecloki and Shizuka.
Sebecloki, would tieflings or Aasimar still exist in this world? And would you allow us to roll for alternate abilities if so?
@Teiidae, thirst domain is fine.
I'm generally fine if people want to homebrew etc., just do something that makes sense for the setting and don't be silly OP.
Out of curiosity, is there any mythic paths besides the default six of paizo and the dragony goodness? I swear I saw some sort of gunslingery path, but I can't remember.
@Gramork -- Athas isn't connected to the outer planes -- there's a barrier called the black that segregates it from the rest of the multiverse.
It would make more sense to have a half genie or half elemental that fills the same roll, since there is inner plane access. I'd rather we did that and work on a setting appropriate substitute.
There's one for psionic classes but Im not sure how much help that is for you.
Okay no problem I missed that detail in Dark Sun class I suppose.
@shizuka -- there are some other options in the additional mythic rules link I posted. I think it's from legendary games.
Sweet, thanks Sebecloki.
@Gramork -- I think we can come up with a decent approximation of an assmar or tiefling, and even use those races as a base to design something, it would just be more appropriate to have a half/genie elemental. There aren't any devils, demons, angels, or other outsiders on Athas, and the only people that can travel the planes are a handful of super powerful villains. I think it happened once or twice in canon ever
Does anyone want to weigh in on the timeline question? I think I'm veering towards post Prism Pentad at the moment.
I don't think that's necessary Sebecloki. I only asked because they're my go to races, but if they aren't lore friendly I wouldn't want to force the issue.
I’d say Prism Pentad. Storms sound like fun, and more leeway with expanding the plotline
I was thinking we could have survivor of Ur Draxa huddled in the ruins and transformed by the Cerulean Storm if someone wants to go there.
I like the political situation in Tyr more, and I think Dregoth is a better main setting villain than Borys.
I'm really unfamiliar with the timeline, so I can go with anything really.
Damn...just found that my build is illegal. The Monk bits conflict with shield usage. :(
Glad that we have time for these builds. :p
—-
And fixed. Had to replace blade disciple with Enlightened Paladin...the only Paladin archetype without the paladin code (replaces it with self perfection).
Now have an elf dedicated to self-perfection, soul bound to an elemental obsessed with destroying defilers.
Should be fun!
Wouldn't that make it illegal on two fronts? Magi can't use spell combat if they don't have a free hand.
Doh!
Okay, here I am with the revised rolls.
Hello, GM Sebecloki!
I really like the Dark Sun setting, and have put together a few characters on here, though the games they were in have died. I'd be happy to resubmit them here.
My favourite one is K'aketak Dustwalker, a Thri-Kreen Templar. Might require a bit of tweaking.
There is also Tarkahas Tassik, Dray psychic. He will take a fair bit of tweaking since his stats are currently sixth level. The GM also used Dragonborn instead of Nagaji as the basis for them so I'd have to change up the race traits a bit.
But since we're rolling...
34 points... meh. I'll just do the 35 point-buy as I can choose what goes where.
posted some maps in campaign info -- I think I found the best ones, let me know if there are any suggestions
Updated campaign overview, let me know if anything's missing.
I do want to be clear so no one's disappointed -- I was really inspired by the post that suggested doing 1, 2, and 6 from the AP, and putting an exploration of Giuestenal in between. I'll have to look at 4 and 5, but I'm not committed to those. I like the idea of the reclaiming the Gnoll fort in 1-2 and the City of Brass in 6. I have a ton of 2e Dark Sun stuff and I might prefer to work with some of that if I find 4 and 5 not that interesting -- I'm really starting to feel like I want to run some version of Dregoth Ascending instead of 4-5, maybe using some of Tsen from Frog God's Sword of Air for parts of Giustenal instead of Tsar, I'm still thinking about it.
Wouldn't that make it illegal on two fronts? Magi can't use spell combat if they don't have a free hand.
A buckler, my good friend. :)
Looking at further bringing the Ssurran up to speed, I'd love it for them to be able to treat the environment as 2 steps less severe (as also seen in the Heart of the Sun Human alternate racial trait). However, there is no RP value for that anywhere. Would you say that comes down to about 2 RP?
That would leave me with 3 RP. Still looking at the options there.
Ssuran:
+2 Str +4 Con (perfect combat stats, comes out to be +6 RP)
2x claws and 1x bite (3 RP)
+1 Natural Armor (2 RP)
Heart of the Sun (4 RP, well worth in on Athas. It replaces skilled and that costs 4)
Darkvision (2 RP)
Prehensile Tail (2 RP)
15ft Climb Speed (1 RP)
20 total
You can make a real combat monster out of that. And it follows the upgrade pattern of the darksun races
Ssuran:
+2 Str +4 Con (perfect combat stats, comes out to be +6 RP)
2x claws and 1x bite (3 RP)
+1 Natural Armor (2 RP)
Heart of the Sun (4 RP, well worth in on Athas. It replaces skilled and that costs 4)
Darkvision (2 RP)
Prehensile Tail (2 RP)
15ft Climb Speed (1 RP)
20 totalYou can make a real combat monster out of that. And it follows the upgrade pattern of the darksun races
Climb and Darkvision make no sense though as they live on plains/desert areas and mainly go about during the day. Prehensile tail also doesn't work as they are described as having a rigid tail they use for balance.
That's why I swapped went for Desert Stride instead of a climb speed, so no difficult terrain penalties in desert.
The darkvision I'd swap for low-light vision and a second instance of bite so it goes to 1d4 instead of 1d3.
If allowed I'd swap the prehensile tail for slapping tail, giving me a 1d8+str tail slap with 5 ft reach that can only be used for attacks of opportunity. That would bring it to 21 RP though.
EDIT: The slapping tail would also open up the option for a homebrew feat that basically gives the tripping tail racial trait. That allows you to make a free trip attempt when you hit with slapping tail.
Here goes!
That's pretty terrible!
Ssuran:
+2 Str +4 Con (perfect combat stats, comes out to be +6 RP)
2x claws and 1x bite (3 RP)
+1 Natural Armor (2 RP)
Heart of the Sun (4 RP, well worth in on Athas. It replaces skilled and that costs 4)
Darkvision (2 RP)
Prehensile Tail (2 RP)
15ft Climb Speed (1 RP)
20 totalYou can make a real combat monster out of that. And it follows the upgrade pattern of the darksun races
Climb and Darkvision make no sense though as they live on plains/desert areas and mainly go about during the day. Prehensile tail also doesn't work as they are described as having a rigid tail they use for balance.
That's why I swapped went for Desert Stride instead of a climb speed, so no difficult terrain penalties in desert.
The darkvision I'd swap for low-light vision and a second instance of bite so it goes to 1d4 instead of 1d3.If allowed I'd swap the prehensile tail for slapping tail, giving me a 1d8+str tail slap with 5 ft reach that can only be used for attacks of opportunity. That would bring it to 21 RP though.
EDIT: The slapping tail would also open up the option for a homebrew feat that basically gives the tripping tail racial trait. That allows you to make a free trip attempt when you hit with slapping tail.
Good points. Slapping tail would work better. And desert stride would work better than the climb speed.
This is one of those points where I just have to say “I agree”
+2 Str +4 Con (+6 RP)
2x claws and 1x bite (3 RP)
+1 Natural Armor (2 RP)
Low Light Vision (1 RP)
Terrain Stride-Desert (1 RP)
Slapping Tail (3 RP)
Heart of the Sun (4 RP)
20 RP total
Seems like this would work pretty well. Especially as there are plenty of ways outside of race builder to improve natural attacks.
@Cuàn
It looks like you're getting good guidance here from Malkaer -- if it's not too much work, I would ask that once you finish this you write it up for me like the other race entries so we can have the material agreed upon, in writing, and available for future use. You can lift the fluff text for Ssurans from a pre-existing source.
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I'm looking at the first adventure -- everyone needs to come up with a 'hook' to be associated with a House Vordon merchant convoy investigating the fallen trading post of Kelmarane, you're under the leadership of a house representative who wants to retake the site for House Vordon to help it recover in the wake of Kallak's death.
It would be cool if people could get together and tie their character's histories together as well.
I'm letting you start at a bit higher level, so there should be more back story than a 1st level character, like you've done some stuff already.
Here's some fluff I found on House Vordon --
House Vordon
Once one of the most feared and respected of Athas’s great houses, House Vordon has become something of a laughing stock. In recent years, as Tyr’s vast resources have been slowly diverted to constructing Kalak’s ziggurat, House Vordon’s fortunes have declined. Trade goods were sold to obtain cash for materials, slaves were requisitioned and set to work on the monument, and the entire city has suffered. Now, Vordon has become an object of derision and ridicule by other houses, who chortle at Kalak’s senility and Vordon’s troubles.
Trade Goods: Iron, weapons, artwork, textiles, and slaves.
Emblem: Black diamond (representing iron) on a red/brown field (representing the mountains surrounding Tyr).
House Vordon specializes in the export of iron from Tyr. This rare and vital element is in demand throughout the Tyr region. As iron’s primary supplier, Vordon can virtually set its own price. It is the iron trade, in fact, that keeps Vordon solvent as Tyr’s economy teeters on the brink of collapse.
Other export items include slaves, artwork, and textiles, but the shortage of labor as Kalak diverts more and more resources into the construction of his ziggurat virtually eliminates these as trade goods. Financially strapped and on the verge of starvation, Tyr has been forced to import vast quantities of food, water, and kank nectar. Vordon helps to provide the city with these items, but a chronic cash shortage within Tyr keeps their profits low.
The Vordon emporium takes up a full corner of Iron Square, lying to the left of Caravan Way as it enters the square. The front of the building houses the retail functions, while the rear consists of offices and storage. Directly across the street from the emporium next to the Nobles Quarter, House Vordon maintains its main office and a large, very secure warehouse. A small, fortified outpost used for storage of wagons and pack animals can be found five miles south of Tyr.
@Cuàn
It looks like you're getting good guidance here from Malkaer -- if it's not too much work, I would ask that once you finish this you write it up for me like the other race entries so we can have the material agreed upon, in writing, and available for future use. You can lift the fluff text for Ssurans from a pre-existing source.
Sure, I'll get that going.
Only choice is which edition I use for the flavor as they are conflicting to some extent.
EDIT: As for my character's tie to House Vordon, he'd be a freelance desert guide that is often employed by them.
Yeah, Dark Sun's like that -- there's also some conflicting versions of some of the characters. Just pick the version you like best.
Like, there's one version of Kallak in the Rise and Fall of a Dragon King where he's not one of the original Champions, but a late coming up start. I kind of like that, I think that's the version my dead Kallak is going to be.
The City State of Tyr (2e) is 5 bucks if anyone wants a gazetter of the city as I'm using it (post Prism). I already bought the hard copy years ago, but that's a good deal if you need some more setting detail -