Leinathan's Mistress CotCT

Game Master leinathan

Is that something you're looking to take/are you looking for me to make a ruling on what the typos actually are? I trust your judgment, although I definitely need to take a nice, comprehensive look through the spiritualist.

I just got the book too.

It's actually something I plan to take at first level. I'm actually surprised it's a feat as well; it feels like something that would be baked in on roughly any other class. (Since I'm basically choosing a patron/bloodline at the start).

Spiritualist is a lot like Summoner; I don't get to choose any evolutions, though. Instead, my pet is like a cavalier order (a really awesome one.). My pet has an insanely limited range, and can deliver spells with ease(I can basically cast touch spells at up to 50 feet range eventually).

While I don't have my pet 'out' I get bonuses to skills, mind affecting saves, and can even manifest some tankiness or spiritual murderiness. It's really neat.

I have some thoughts written down in my background if you want to take a look. Sort of a guideline and from there flesh out the ideas more as they come to me.

Gaedren Lamm*

underworld fighting soldiers/shock troops for Gaedric Lamm.

Gaedren Lamm is a relatively minor criminal. Certainly not one that would ever have a use for soldiers. In his prime he was a smuggler, a thief, and a minor slave trader. But not a soldier. His criminal activities include violence sometimes, but that isn't the goal.

Maybe it could be something like he was trying to make slaves that were stronger or more durable so he could charge more for them. Being able to make the average halfling more fit for hard labor seems like it could be profitable in the long run.

I can see a way that Gaedren would be involved in such a venture. I think. Mostly I just wanted you to tone down the... intensity? Of the justification? 1st-level characters aren't frequently very impressive, you know, nor are the enemies that they face.

The idea of a master wizard creating mutant shock troopers is slightly above the pay grade of Gaedren, if you know what I mean.

I honestly dont know thats why I was looking for some tips on the background, I wasnt sure how extensive his reach is or funds are.

Actually, it can make sense if you spin it a different way. Instead of hiring a skilled wizard, since it's out of his means, Gaedren hires a half mad back alley alchemist. They guy tries a bunch of experimental mutagens, but he's nuts and not all the good, so of course it fails and leads to Gritz becoming a rat-like creature instead of the intended improved halfling.

Actually, it can make sense if you spin it a different way. Instead of hiring a skilled wizard, since it's out of his means, Gaedren hires a half mad back alley alchemist. They guy tries a bunch of experimental mutagens, but he's nuts and not all the good, so of course it fails and leads to Gritz becoming a rat-like creature instead of the intended improved halfling.

This is a great suggestion, actually. It wasn't one that I thought of.

I think the primary part about Gaedren that the adventure's authors want you to understand is that he's actually sort of pathetic. That he damaged the lives of dozens of children but that doesn't make him some epic force for evil. He's evil, sure, and a criminal, and deserves to die (probably). But he's just a malicious old man.

He could totally want to corner the market on something without really realizing that it's not going to work.

I believe I have updated everything with Ila. If something wonky stands out, let me know.

I'm sticking with Nary's crunch as detailed on the alias.

1.For a profession, what does your character do? How good are they at it/how well-off are they?

Nary is a con-artist. She's really talented at it, unfortunately, she is both un-educated and not the brightest, so her cons have been pretty small-time - she lacks both the attention span and the intelligence to really pull off a big heist. Most of her cons revolve around passing off snake oil as actual potions, or non-magical items and weaponry as magical. She tends to dress flamboyantly - in an effort to pass as a minor noble of some sort, to help sell her cons, along with gnomish magic - prestidigitation and ghost sound can go a long way.

2. What did Gaedren Lamm, the notorious criminal, do to you? How did you respond, emotionally to it?

A local fisherman was intimidated into framing Nary's twin sister, Isabel Ne'er Do Well, for murder! But Nary managed to trick (aka- charm) the fisherman into revealing the truth - but her sister is still being held by local law enforcement until her name can be cleared. While Nary could probably mesmerize the people holding her into letting her free, she'd rather do it legitimately so that they don't have to have their names blacklisted. As con-women, it's important that they stay on the down-low.

Emotionally, Nary is terrified. She really doesn't have anyone in this world except for Isabel, and isn't sure what she'd do without her. She's never had to go a very long stretch of time without Isabel by her side. She's coping by focusing her efforts on getting this a@%@#@#. She's very much out for revenge.

3.Why are you your alignment?

Nary is neutral because she doesn't really have a sense of right or wrong. Her primary motivations revolve around survival and attaining wealth or pleasure. Other people are just tools to be manipulated and used for her own benefit.

Nary is chaotic because she doesn't really understand the purpose of laws. Her father was a criminal, and her mother died when she was very young. To her, laws just seem to get in the way of doing what you want to do.

Nary has a lot of room for character growth, depending on the influence of people around her she could easily become good or evil. She is unlikely to budge much from being chaotic, though. However, I would like it if Nary grew to learn that laws can be used for good, not just to lock up innocent people like her sister away.

4. If you're a spellcaster, where are you getting your spellcasting from? If you receive powers from a diety, why do you worship that diety? If you studied, who did you study under and why?

Nary has no damn idea where her psychic powers came from. They developed naturally as she grew as a con-woman down her many years of life, based off her innate understanding of gnomish magic.

The first time her psychic powers manifested was as she fled Whistledown. She managed to charm a passing merchant into letting them ride with him to Magnimar - and also learned the power of her gaze while doing so. She has since graduated to incorporating a shiny coin that she manipulates along her fingers while talking to people - the light reflecting off of the coin aids her in her attempts to hypnotize others.

She knows very little about magic. The magic she has is instinctive in nature.

5.Do you have a family? What are your relationships like with your family?

Nary's mother is dead. She was killed by some people her father crossed when she was young. She doesn't know much about it, nor does she really mourn her death.

Nary despises her father. He's still in Whistledown, where he engages in a number of criminal/shady activities - mostly drug trafficking and whoring. Nary and Isabel grew up with the expectation that they would be whores. They were not interested in this... loss of freedom, so they ran away.

Nary's other family member is of course Isabel, who is her only real friend. Isabel is a rogue, and despite being her identical twin, is very different in personality. While Nary is the charming, outgoing face of the pair, Isabel tends to be quiet and reserved. Where Nary is rash, Isabel is cautious and contemplative. Isabel is not asexual or aromantic, as Nary is - something that causes Nary a lot of anguish. Nary secretly fears that Isabel will fall in love with some bloke, and she will become second-place in her sister's life. Nary has done a good job of scaring off potential suitors so far - often using her talents to do so. Isabel is also actively trying to learn how to read - Nary is being obstinate and stubborn on that front. ("We've done just fine so far, who needs stupid words!")

Nary has room to make friends with other people. She's just used to making it just as her and her sister. Now that she is being forced to face life without Isabel, she is likely to learn that there is value in having actual friends, as opposed to people who are manipulated or enchanted into doing what she wants.

6. Are you a Korvosan native? If not, where are you from and why did you move to Korvosa?

Nary is from Whistledown. She hasn't been there in a long time. She has no idea if her father is dead or alive, nor does she really care.

Nary has come to Korvosa because she has already exhausted Magnimar and Kaer Maga as places to run her cons. Also, as a gnome, she likes to stay on the move, experience new things, see new sights. She and Isabel have scoped out a home in the Shingles for the time being.

I intend for Nary's motivation to stay with the AP even after Gaedren is taken care of to be the friendship(s) she forms with the other members of the party. Nary is a fiercely loyal little gnome, and once she has formed new friends, would be reluctant to leave them behind, even if circumstances would normally inspire her to get the hell out of town.

7a. List a short-term (complete-able within a month) goal for your character.
Reap her gnomey revenge on the a~#@@&& who got her sister in jail. Get her sister out of jail. Go drinking with sister. Maybe make some coin along the way.

7a. List a medium-term (complete-able within five years) goal for your character.

Nary should grow more worldly. Nary doesn't think so, of course, but she doesn't understand or value education. Learning to read would be a big deal. Learning more about her magical powers - where they come from, how they work - would also be a big deal.

7c.List a long-term (complete-able by the time you die) goal for your character.
Death? Hah! Nary doesn't really think long-term. She has difficulty planning stuff out - part of the reason why she is obsessed with earning money is because she is incapable of saving it.

But my goal for Nary would be to see her learn more about other people's points of view, and grow more worldly and focused. I suppose in a way my goal for Nary is for her to actually have goals bigger than herself. Whether those goals are benevolent or sinister really depend on how the AP goes.

Another goal is for Nary to become less dependent on her sister. Having a network of friends and allies - or at least minions - would go a long way here.

Nary/Kiora, have you ever seen the thrallherd prestige class? If you ever got a spell that allowed telepathy I'd let you take it.

I am now officially imagining Nary as a Clap-Trap experiment gone wrong. "GREETINGS, MINIONS!"

4. If you're a spellcaster, where are you getting your spellcasting from? If you receive powers from a diety, why do you worship that diety? If you studied, who did you study under and why?

With a different class, this has changed.

Ila studied the magics that both her mother and father were capable of, but those magics that stuck were those that she had significant emotional investment on her or her family's part.

In particular, she remembers how frustrated she was with her inability to properly cast the mage hand cantrip (A feat which, to this day, she cannot perform), she has learned, however, that she can bottle that frustration, and focus on the premise of mage hand... to send an object hurtling at high, dangerous speeds. Guidance and Light came easily to her, as did detect magic.

Cure light wounds first manifested when her lack of vigilance allowed one of her 'brothers' to come to harm. She was first able to remove the fear of another when she found herself in an intense situation (specifically, with Gaedren Lamm; she removed the young girl's fear), and Invisibility Alarm is currently beyond her.

Emotional casting is one of my favorite forms of casting.

Guidance: Her mother's warmth.
Light: Her father's warmth.
Detect Magic: Wonder
Telekinetic Projection: Irritation.

Cure Light Wounds: Guilt
Remove Fear: Tension
Invisibility Alarm: Security

That's pretty sweet, thanks :D

Actually, it can make sense if you spin it a different way. Instead of hiring a skilled wizard, since it's out of his means, Gaedren hires a half mad back alley alchemist. They guy tries a bunch of experimental mutagens, but he's nuts and not all the good, so of course it fails and leads to Gritz becoming a rat-like creature instead of the intended improved halfling.

I dig that! Trying to make more effective sneaks and assassins, but on the cheap! Could let me add some more crazy to him, I am liking this!

Now that I'm playing a caster, I'm afraid of the wounds system. The idea of not being able to cast cure light wounds because I'm hurt is... a terrifying prospect. So much so that I'm thinking about taking endurance on Ila (I already have it on her Phantom) at first level. It helps that I love the feat, anyway, even without thresholds.

Edit: I'm actually going to swap them. Endurance gained, weapon finesse lost. Endurance fits a lot better than weapon finesse anyway. I was looking at it from a surgical precision standpoint (but that's wisdom with heal). Dealing with fatigue better fits much more into the midwife-artist-caretaker-always busy nonsense that is her life. Any tips on helping me to channel my inner Choant?

Now that I'm playing a caster, I'm afraid of the wounds system. The idea of not being able to cast cure light wounds because I'm hurt is... a terrifying prospect. So much so that I'm thinking about taking endurance on Ila (I already have it on her Phantom) at first level. It helps that I love the feat, anyway, even without thresholds.

Edit: I'm actually going to swap them. Endurance gained, weapon finesse lost. Endurance fits a lot better than weapon finesse anyway. I was looking at it from a surgical precision standpoint (but that's wisdom with heal). Dealing with fatigue better fits much more into the midwife-artist-caretaker-always busy nonsense that is her life. Any tips on helping me to channel my inner Choant?

Consumables have saved Markus' life, I think. That, and picking spells that don't have caster-level factors (i.e cause fear). Consumables don't take wounds, it's wonderful.

Taking Weapon Finesse at level 3 shouldn't be too bad. You'll just have a low to-hit on your actual PC for a bit.

Doublechecking my sheet, I've discovered that I forgot to replace the trait that's no longer exceptionally fitting. I could still take the prestidigitation trait, or I could take (ew) Reactionary, as it fits the character rather well. I'm very open to suggestions when it comes to traits, as I've looked through the lists several times and found very little that I feel is fitting for her. :(

There's also Friends in Low Places, perhaps.

Is she still interested in tattoos as art? If so, perhaps Varisian Tattoo would be a good choice.

I definitely liked that trait as well. But having something like 8 different ways that my will saves can be influenced is a vaguely terrifying prospect.

[ ]Charm or Compulsion? +1
[ ]Is your Phantom inside you? +3
[ ]Mind Affecting, too? +4
[ ]Did Nary touch you in some way recently and some specific condition is met for her hypnosis to magically kick in? +?
[ ]Is it the third day of the new moon?

I'm thinking Friends in Low Places fits really well for what amounts to a doctor in the poorer districts. Taking care of a ton of kids probably helps as well.

Which districts would specifically count as 'poorer districts' within the city? I'm pretty certain that the Thieves Camp will fit. Likewise I think the Shingles is assuredly an area that she'd be able to find work readily within.

The 50,000 conditional modifiers thing *is* a bit much :p

Actually Friends in Low Places is pretty neat. I imagine a large portion of Old Korvosa would fall into that as well, Bridgefront especially.

Friends in Low Places looks very fitting given the state of Korvosa.

Mmhmm. And it fits with her goals as stated as well. I'm quite pleased with having run into it. Especially since it isn't really a conditional modifier. I'd actually like to see more traits like that with different groups, now that I think about it.

Any progress on Grizt, Choant? Need anything from me to stir things?

Actually, I have a question - how did he justify learning alchemy to himself, given him torturous creation? Where did he learn it, anyway?

Yeah I am slowly getting his background done actually, I am thinking he was trained under the order of Gaedric to make weapons that can utilize alchemy(such as the grenadier class ability) by the crazy gnome alchemist that made him.

Have it so Gaedric basically invested in indentured servant contracts(Since slavery is frowned upon but that seems more likely to take place) and bought the reagents and the crazy alchemist was given the subjects for his experimentation and curiosity of what he could make them into, sounds like a cheap plan to end up with mutant thieves/assassins/burglars. Take a halfing who is already good at it and make him better on the cheap kind of thing.

Also for his name I'm thinking like GR12T=Grizt kind of a thing, like "subject GR12T" and have him read that as his name. Thoughts? Input?

That's how my lab experiment alchemist got her name, too. :) L4N became Lynn. I worked so hard on making that background, too. It was glorious. :)

Does your halfling remember none of his former life, or?

No remembering, mostly just glazed over it, kind of doing a 3rd person background of the situation, then a wake up learn and progress to a 1st person kind of thing, with a big reveal that he was an experiment also. :)

Grizt - his name is GaedrEN. GAEDREN.

GAEDREN LAMM

Let me know when you're done, yeah?

Hey, if you were a mutant halfling experiment, you'd probably have trouble remembering his name too :p

LMAO! Sorry I was reading it on the small font of the pdf, my bad!

Omg, Nary's finished. :D :D :D Yay vacation!

Hmmmmm, I'm nervous! She's a super social-skillsy character so whether she actually ends up doing anything will be in Leinathan's hands haha.

Combat-wise she'll be pretty foiled by stuff immune to mind-affecting stuff. Whether or not I'll try really hard to get around that I guess will depend on how much undead/vermin/plant stuff we bump into haha. Otherwise, I plan on trying to pick up her sister as a cohort via Leadership, who will hopefully get to do some neat stuff with feints.

Down the road, she'll either focus on support by debuffing/buffing or total villainous-dominate-an-army-of-thralls, depending on the tone of the group and where she is on the alignment spectrum at that point.

She will always attempt to talk her way out of things if possible. She's actually not used to fighting - and it will show.

Roleplay wise, I hope you guys have fun with her. The original idea was to take advantage of how in pbp everyone gets insight both into a player's actions and their thoughts. So what comes out of Nary's mouth will be drastically different than what is going on in her head. So I hope she will be entertaining to read even if she's bound to rub someone's PC the wrong way eventually, haha.

For all you PCs, you should feel free to call Nary on her bluffs as appropriate. I don't really intend for her to cause crazy drama in the group, and she definitely won't attempt to charm or otherwise mess with the brainz of other party members. But she will lie - a lot - about random things.

If you guys have feedback for her build or whatever, I'd love to hear it.

How is it that she has Improved Feint without Combat Expertise first?

Also, um...why?

Mesmerists qualify for Improved Feint without having Combat Expertise. It's a class feature. I can't say the reason why she picked it though.

Because she and Isabel are feint partners, of course! :)

Or will be. If she lives. :|

Because she and Isabel are feint partners, of course! :)

Yup, this. Teamwork feats!

Unless Isabel dies. Then- hopefully I could retrain? Otherwise, c'est la vie.

Or I make my phantom take it! Maybe? Possibly...

Sounds spooky!

The phantom wouldn't be any good at it! Plus... I'm heading for diehard, first. :) Because... spooky!

Now that there's no Choant to wait on, we can actually talk here about actually starting in a timely manner now.

It depends, also, on whether we want to wait for a sixth to come in from Ary. My main objection to it is that without that, we could just start right now.

I'm alright with either option.

I suppose the million dollar question is how fast can Ary's friend whip something up?

I really would like to get into the groove of things honestly, so I can get a grasp of this unfortunately-named character. ;P

Is there any chance that Ary's friend could join in a little down the line, if not right away? They're being vouched for, so it's not that I'm opposed to playing with them.

I'm good either way. I am a little sad that I'm the only evil character in the party now.

There are a few opportunities to introduce PCs in each chapter that are relatively smooth so it's certainly possible for Ary's friend to come in past the first quest.

I'll start authoring the first few posts now. It'll take a bit but be ready soon!

Start now. She doesn't want a handout, like I said in the other room. :P

Before I start, I'd like a location for where your character is...ah, right now.

Assuming you mean for everyone:

I'd say Auraelia is likely at home with Marius, either back home for the day if it's late, or getting ready to go out and hunt for leads if it's in the morning..

Aaron would likely be at the room he rents above the bar where he works. He doesn't go out much unless he's on a job. Especially since the barkeep gives him a huge employee discount.