I like the idea of having some law vs chaos between the party members, but I think Bella would get along better with Gideon. Either are good choices.
I like Mark Talbot who has also asked to be kept in consideration for further plots of the DM.
Gideon is very muchly like me in build.
Granted, Mark can butcher any enemy he faces, but I don't see anything in his profile that suggests story.
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I like Mark Talbot who has also asked to be kept in consideration for further plots of the DM.
Gideon is very muchly like me in build.
Mark Talbot is a powerful melee combatant, and that's good. With his mutagen going (in STR) he can power attack at +7 to hit and 1d12+13 damage - not bad at 1st level. But it seems like all he can do is hit things really hard; he doesn't really have any non-combat abilities (a common problem with the fighter class). Also there are a lot of math/number errors on his sheet.
There was a bit of story for his character, but it was in a forum post rather than on his sheet.
Gideon is a ranger and admittedly rangers and slayers are similar. But he is clearly focused on melee whereas Zokon is mainly an archer. I don't especially like Gideon's backstory (it's a bit simple and the one main thread is one that is also a part of mine), but then Mark's isn't very interesting either.
We'll see what KDM says.
Hitting hard sometimes solves a lot of problems. That's why hammers are a tool of choice, no matter the job!
Front liner would be appreciated. Say hello to my little friend!
We can always work him into stories, hooks and there is always multi-classing.
I'm just offering another viewpoint.
Mahorfeus asked for Gideon Schrade to be pulled from consideration. So he is out. I've reached out to someone, we'll see what they say...
Well, it's all a moot point... we'll see who comes! Thanks for looking out for us KDM! I'm sure your choice will be fine with us. We were just musing among ourselves.
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Greetings all! I received a PM from DM asking if I was still interested in joining, since a player dropped out. Thank you very much for the opportunity.
Before I go too much further, I was wondering if I could change EVERYTHING about my charater...
I would agree, that it is a bit odd to make drastic changes, such as race, class, build, ect.; after being selected based on the original character.
I look forward to contributing to the game. Numalar seems to be taking on a "party advisor" role. Did you see anything you think should be adjusted with Fronar to fill any party gaps?
Hi Fronar... welcome to the party! and good jest that... are you sure you're not a bard at heart? lol...
Welcome Fronar! Good to have you here.
Greetings! Well met!
Hey everyone, as you can see, Fronar has agreed to join your group. Thanks for making him feel welcome.
Was just checking in, I hope to have the first post in game up later tonight.
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Welcome and well met, Froanar! You should know that I am quite fond of the Knife Master archetype and I have a PFS character with that archetype.
Numalar seems to be taking on a "party advisor" role. Did you see anything you think should be adjusted with Fronar to fill any party gaps?
Well, thank you for asking! I can see some ways that you might adjust Froanar based on the makeup of the party.
If you wish to change EVERYTHING may I suggest a Drow Paladin? :) Just kidding!
You are really asking for it when you ask for my opinion because I tend to write long! So I have spoilered everything to make it easy.
Second, maybe you should think about your background a bit more. I notice you have a Chaotic Good alignment and in your personality it mentions that you have a "Robin Hood" mentality. This is a little bit at odds with your story, where you talk about wanting to expand your power in the thieves' guild.
By this I mean two things. First, chaotic people don't usually lust after power. They are more interested in freedom, and if they want power it is because it is a route to independence. Likewise, your typical mafioso character is probably evil, or at best neutral. They make a living by taking from others, through force, intimidation, and guile. They are also loyal, follow a strict code, and have an organized hierarchy, making them often lawful.
It would be a little weird later on in the campaign trying to form a "mafia" family. You won't need to because you are already the guy in charge.
A typical CG thief probably became a thief as a way of "fighting back" against the wealthy oppressive nobles of Brevoy. This especially works if you grew up amongst the poverty of the urban or rural poor. If you want to be CG maybe you began your career thinking that being the "underground" guild working against "the man" must be good since in your mind the upper classes are clearly bad. Your story may involve Froanar's disillusionment with the way of the thieves' guild as he realizes that they are also evil guys preying on the poor. This would also explain your suspicious trait as you no longer trust people the way you once did.
This also might put you at odds with your father which makes for good drama. Maybe you have had a falling out. Perhaps Froanar wants to earn enough that he could get his father out of the guild, but his father doesn't want to leave and wants Froanar to come back. If you are chaotic you are probably rebellious.
Thirdly, you mention in your personality that your character had a stint in the military, but you don't mention it in your back story. You should work it in somewhere. It's unlikely that you were regular infantry as you aren't proficient in martial weapons or medium armor, but you might have been a scout or archer of some kind.
Also, you have taken the background trait "Brigand" which means that you were probably a rural or country robber for a while. You might want to put that in there somewhere. It's OK if your character "drifted around" a lot before his current "job."
One last thing about background: which city is Froanar from? Maybe he should be from New Stetven as it is the Brevoy capital and probably the biggest city. Restov could be where he ended up after leaving his father's guild.
If you are going to focus on flanking then you usually have to invest in Acrobatics. Since this is based off DEX it's an easy choice to make.
You could focus on feinting using bluff skill. This is a bit harder because it usually involves investing in a bunch of feats, and it rewards a high CHA.
Another one is the Shatter Defenses & Dazzling display route, using intimidate. This takes a while to come on line and requires another bunch of feats. But we don't have a good intimidator in our party, so worth thinking about.
Using concealment effects also works, but is limited. Stealth is good but only goes so far. This could work with the use of mundane things like smokesticks but probably involves magic items. You might want a decent Use Magic Device skill if you want to go this route.
Finally there is the scout archetype. They trade away Uncanny Dodge with the ability to sneak attack on a charge. If your character was really in the military this might work. Scout and Knife MAster are compatible.
You will need to concentrate on one or two of these things.
First of all, there is a tendency in a Kingmaker game for everyone to try to have a good CHA. But aside from the main "faces" it is not necessary for everyone to have a high CHA. If you are not going to be using bluff or intimidate as a means of getting sneak attacks then I would drop your CHA and not bother with social skills. WIS is pretty important for most rogues as Perception and Sense Motive use it, and so do will saves. So I would be inclined to put your 14 in WIS (or even your 16 from CON and make CON 14), and put your 10 in CHA. Or even drop it below 10 for the extra points.
If you are planning on using bluff a lot then I would skip this advice. But because using CHA forces you to diversify I would personally go the acrobatics/stealth/scout route and dump CHA.
A STR of 12 will give you a +1 damage on your primary hand attacks, but not your off-hand. So if you need the points to boost something else I would drop STR to 10. STR won't do much for you, and if you get a dagger with the Agile property (which adds DEX to damage) then it won't do anything at all except improve carrying capacity.
I would probably go: STR 10, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 10
or: STR 11, DEX 19, CON 16, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 7
or: STR 11, DEX 18, CON 16, INT 13, WIS 16, CHA 7 (you need INT 13 for Combat Expertise, if you were planning on taking that feat.)
Your Saves for any of these arrays would be F:+3 R:+6, W:+3.
Instead of using your bonus feat on TWF, I am going to suggest that you instead (assuming the DM allows) take the Focused Study alternate race trait. Basically it gives you the Skill Focus feat now instead, but also gives you a second Skill Focus at 8th level and a third one at 16th level. In the end that's three feats for the price of one.
(Focused Study is listed in the Human section of the Advanced Race Guide)
The reason I suggest this is that while rogues get a lot of skill ranks, this means they can do a lot of things, but doesn't make them better at any one thing. You want things that give you bonuses to the skills you use a lot.
I would either put it into Perception (which is always important) or Acrobatics (if you plan on using that for flanking a lot). I would probably do perception just because nobody in the party has an especially good score and it's fairly important. If you are going into Bluff for feinting or Intimidate for Shatter defenses then you could put it there.
But what about TWF? I know losing that hurts, but you can take the Combat Trick rogue talent at 2nd level and get it again. You will find that a lot of the time you will have to move on your turn if you want to flank and doing so means that you lose your second attack. So it's not as big a loss as you might think.
The other route would be to get rid of Weapon Finesse and take the Finesse Rogue talent at 2nd level. This will hurt more as you will have a real hard time hitting at first level. But the finesse rogue talent isn't "wasted" that way.
However, I would actually recommend (again if KDM allows it) that you swap out the human extra skill rank for either the "Heart of the Streets" or "Heart of the Slums" alternate race trait (again this is from the Human section of the Advanced Race Guide).
Secondly, I would forget about diplomacy, and get rid of bluff unless you want to feint. Other party members will always be better than you at these things.
You probably want Stealth. Escape artist might be good. Knowledge:Dungeoneering might come up once in a while.
Daggers are cheap. Get a ton of them. Get a few cold iron ones and at least one silver one. Buy a couple of Bandoliers to put them in, but have some hidden in wrist sheaths and stuff like that. Wear a pickpocket's outfit.
Masterwork Thieves' tools.
Get a shortbow as a backup ranged weapon. Might have had it since you were in the army. Don't forget ammo.
Maybe an acid flask or two in case you need a splash weapon.
If you can afford it, maybe a chain shirt instead of the studded leather (though this will penalize stealth and acrobatics by 2 instead of 1). Or if you still have your army uniform, maybe Parade Armor - which has the same stats as studded and also makes you look more official.
Look through Ultimate Equipment. It's a great book and it's on the PRD.
Hope this is useful and I haven't melted your brain!
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I'm anxious to start building my "family" until I become "The Godfather", Don Gossamar. I'm ready to begin whenever you are.
About a year ago a few members, including the DM, of my IRL group split up to move in different directions. Unable to find a new group, I turned to pbp. So I've been playing pfs games via pbp since then.
I'm very easy going and if somehow I manage to offend anyone, please let me know so i can rectify the situation, since it will not have been done intentionally or maliciously. I'm here to enjoy the game, just like every other player, not to cause friction.
I've been playing D&D/Pathfinder for a combined total of approx 15 years.
I'm sure we'll get to know each other better as the game progresses, but hopefully that will give you some background about me.
Welcome Fronar .. a couple things. You might want to flesh out your background a bit and give the DM and you more to play with. Your ac on your sheet says 14 and we'll have to get you a bow so you and me can scout together more effectively.
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One other thing KDM: are alchemical reagents OK in this game? i.e. from the Alchemy Manual.
If so I want to adjust my starting gear a bit, to include some saltpeter which gives +1 damage to burning hands.
Also, did you have any feedback about changing enlarge person to something else?
First post is up here.
Let's have some fun!
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Thanks for all the insight. Most of my stats and choices are based off of my backstory. I really enjoy the fluff and a lot of your suggestions simply tip the balance of the character towards power gaming or min/max'ing.
I can see pros and cons to most of your suggestions.
If you would like me to explain the reason for the choices I made, I would be happy to do that. All in all, I'm pretty happy with the outline I created. We'll see how he turns out.
Stats, gear, ect. have been corrected. Character had originally been planned as fighter for 1st level, then going rogue after. Therefore, I had a few redundant changes that got overlooked.
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Ah, I see. So the former soldier thing was part of the "Fighter Version." I take it then he is not so much the "Robin Hood" concept now. Do you still plan for his alignment to be CG?
Don't be afraid of min/maxing. Just because you have a well designed character doesn't mean you can't role-play. It's more important for Rogues because they are overall a weak class. A well-built Rogue can still have a hard time keeping up with a poorly-built Paladin. Besides, the 30-point buy suggests to me that the difficulty will be scaled up noticeably.
You don't need to explain your choices to me, though details like your brigand trait and suspicious trait should probably be worked in to your backstory. A part of the reason for traits is to give players a tool for creating their character story.
It would be potentially very cool if your brigand trait meant that you would be recognized by some of the bandits in the region.
Looking good Fronar.. the knife master bit will kick in and make him very effective, as he is atm, he's can do stuff.. great equipment too.
Good start everyone...
I haven't checked this yet, was just taking a break and popped over here but would all of you please make sure that your full character sheet is written out in your profile of your alias?
When I'm at work normally I won't have access to Mythweavers so I need the full sheet listed here.
Thanks!
Current Standing from Bella's Point of View:
- Numalar: No real impression yet
- Fronar: The troublemaker
- Celyne: Friendly, but not very professional
- Zokon: No real impression yet
- Valeska: Professional and dignified
You all signed the charter on the 24th day of Pharast, 4708 AR.
Sorry for the late post. Best I can do this week being on the road and working. I promise it won't be like this when we get going. I'll generally be online during the day during the week and will post more often. Thanks for understanding.
I moved us along a bit, I hope that's ok. I won't generally do that but needed to this week.
I'm a little sad that we didn't get to properly introduce ourselves or establish relations with one another, but I understand. It's important to keep moving and we've already had some delay.
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You all signed the charter on the 24th day of Pharast, 4708 AR.
Okay, great. I am making a journal for my character.
BTW, is Brevoy in the same relative position on Golarion as it is in canon material? Is the layout of the area and other neigbouring countries the same? Obviously if the greenbelt turns out to be a steaming jungle that will not be the case.
If yes, I assume that there is still snow on the ground, as we are in the far north, at a decent altitude, and it is only the end of March. Is that correct?
Brevoy is in same position as the canon material.
And Spring is just beginning so there is some warmth during the day but the nights are still very cold. Whenever a north wind blows through it is cold regardless of time of day. There is still some snow on the ground and there will be more to come but you will start seeing more rain.
Hope that helps.
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in another pbp game, I set up a google doc link for the party to view anytime, with a list of treasure. Whatever the party decides on how to handle treasure is fine with me. To provide insight from previous games, some sort of tracking and even division will prevent unnecessary drama over fairness.
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I would suggest a system similar to this, as it has worked very well in my previous groups:
1. Keep track of all treasure
2. Sell everything "not useful"
3. Divide gold evenly to players
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To add specifics that also worked out well:
1. Selling items usually provides 1/2 market value, any item a player wants to keep/use, they should pay the selling price to the party.
i.e - if an item costs 1000gp new, selling it would be worth 500gp (or 100gp ea in a 5 person party). If a player wants to keep it they pay 100gp to the rest of the party and thus keep a 1000gp item for 400gp cost to them.
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This brings up another issue. If a player doesn't have the 400gp, they still can take item, but will need to compensate their "I.O.U." when they are able.
2. It is also useful to create a party "bank". Perhaps putting 1/2 of gold into this party "bank" and distributing the remaining 1/2 to players for personal use.
The party "bank" can be used for things like: group lodging, rez services, gold spent for same items for entire party, bribes offered acting as a party, ect.
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3. Players can "borrow" from bank with an "I.O.U.", but may only have 1 such "I.O.U." at anytime. This "loan" is, of course, subject to approval o the rest of the party.
That's a great idea, Fronar. Personally, I usually go with "take what you need", but the reason I suggested it in the first place was because Bella would want something more organized and systematic. If we can work out a system such as the one you've described, I'd be totally fine with that.
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In a home game I am in we use a similar system in that we calculate the value of everything assuming that it is all sold and then figure out what everyone's share is. If you want anything from the pile you use a portion of your share to take it from the pile, so it winds up that you are "paying" the sell price of the item instead of the buy price.
We sometimes put healing items in a separate "party" pile since you never know who you are going to use the cure scroll on.
It seems to me that a lot of people want to make sure the treasure paid out is fairly divided, and are willing to live with the bookkeeping that involves. That's fine.
However, early in the game we will probably find that individual items will often be worth more than 1/6 of the value of the pile. I don't feel we should worry too much about that at first as it should even out eventually.
If the party has 600 gp, and a single 600gp item boosts the power of one character significantly, then we should let him have/buy it and then get to the other players later. If multiple characters have ideas then we could draw lots to see who goes first. This is probably better than everyone having each player have 100 gp and not be able to afford anything important with that.
Why don't we go over what you see as your most likely first major purchases.
For Numalar:
1. Riding Dog 150 gp (or maybe combat-trained wolf) plus barding?
2. Wand of mage armor 750 gp
Here are my guesses for the other players' intentions:
Bella: Masterwork Full Plate Armor? 1650 gp
Celyne: Masterwork Chain Shirt Barding for Luna? 350 gp
Fronar: Mithril Chain Shirt or masterwork daggers? 1100 gp or 302 gp
Valeska: Masterwork Aldori Dueling Sword? 320 gp
Zokon: Masterwork STR16 Composite Longbow? 700 gp
I'm hoping for Mwk Full Plate, a wand of CLW, a riding horse, some scrolls, and maybe a Mwk Scimitar. Those are my prefs. Still, I'll work with what I find. I'm very much an organic leveler, same with equipment.
I should mention that I have prepared the following spells for today. Bella would have mentioned it to those who care.
- Create Water
- Light
- Stabilize
- Bless
- Cure Light Wounds
Added map of Oleg's to the top to help you in your planning.
Looks like Valeska is going scouting. Who's going with?
How far do you wish to go?
Which direction?
What is the general plan?
Thanks.
I know planning is good, she's a tactician. Just mixing it up with action.
I know planning is good, just mixing it up with action.
Great. But again, I need to know what Valeska plans on doing? Just head south for 3 hours and then turn around and come back? Do some type of pattern? How long do you want to be out?
I can't post what you do or do not find without some idea of where you are going, etc.
She's not going rogue, she's waiting on input from the others.
Guessing not in the direction from which we came, and probably shouldn't be in the direction we're headed later unless that's the only direction.
She's waiting on ideas and consensus, just wants to take advantage of the time.
Hey Guys just having a few long days. Will be back up and running shortly
She's not going rogue, she's waiting on input from the others.
Guessing not in the direction from which we came, and probably shouldn't be in the direction we're headed later unless that's the only direction.
She's waiting on ideas and consensus, just wants to take advantage of the time.
It sounds like the others are just focused on the gate at the moment and not thinking about going abroad.
Talking and walking is always an option.
sorry - saturday is my home game - I missed a lot it seems... catching up now...
Be sure and check out my gameplay rules here. Especially the rules on Rolling dice and checks.
Let me know if you have any questions/issues.
Thanks.
Also, one of the things that we will be doing for combat is that when combat starts I will post the stats of the enemy in the space above the thread. Therefore, when you make your roll you can know whether you hit or not and whether you dispatched the enemy or not. So, you then can write out the results of your attack on your own and you don't have to wait for me.
This isn't ideal in terms of gameplay, what with you getting to know who is about to die and all that but it does speed up combat in PbP which can sometimes take a really long time.
For the most part, I will roll initiative for the enemy all together, with the exception of the leader or someone that has a really high initiative modifier. I will also roll the player's initiative so that you will know and can post in your turn.
Let me know if you have any questions about this as we will in all likelihood be in combat soon. :)
Good to know... I may forget about you rolling some rolls for me... if I do, as I'm simply used to some things - ignore my roll and roll it for me - a gentle reminder now and again may help, but I'm in several pbp games and it's hard to remember sometimes... not your problem but mine (i suffer from a severe case of CRS*)
*can't remember sh*t
I can kill you with my hrain... ummm.. maps are good when lots is happening
Thanks for the question, Numalar! I've forgotten to add the light xbow I bought her. It's in her "Other Gear", I just forgot to crunch the numbers.