Revival of the Runelords

Game Master Cellion

Okay, in no particular order:

TRAITS
1. You have taken the Eyes and Ears of the City trait, which is a religion trait for the church of Abadar, but your sheet says you worship Torag. You need to worship Abadar to get this one. Plenty of dwarves do worship Abadar.

If you don't want to worship Abadar then Seeker does the same thing.

There are a couple of regional ones too that grant Perception, if you were from Daggermark or from the Underbridge district of Magnimar.

2. You also have taken the Ancestral Weapon which indicates that you are from Numeria, except that in your story you are from the Five Kings Mountains.

I think I will veto this one altogether though, because what is effectively a +1 to almost all attack rolls and a free masterwork weapon to boot is a bit too much. I think the assumption is that if you took this trait you would be in an Iron Gods game where cold iron and silver are mostly unnecessary and you really want adamantine in that AP.

Signature Moves also gives you a free masterwork weapon, though it is a social trait and you couldn't also take Seeker if you took it.

3. The Guildsman trait fits well, but there is no "Soldiers' Guild," so you can't take that one to have a bonus to Profession (soldier).

It occurs to me though that a "Man-at-Arms" caste trait might be appropriate and if you think that would be better then I'll work one up.

STATS

I have no problem with the way that you have distributed your Ability Scores, but the 5 CHA should have a definite impact on how you play your character.

It can be fun to do if you play it up for comedy value. Perhaps he smells really bad or has an accent that's nearly impossible to decipher. But make sure you think about how this affects the way you present your character. If you are not comfortable doing that then I would suggest not dumping Charisma.

SKILLS

Looks fine... BTW I am comfortable in having you have one craft skill for "metalwork" rather than one for armor and another for weapons. This will mean that you won't be able to make stuff from leather or wood but I doubt that is a problem for you.

RACE ABILITIES

"Rock Stepper" is fine and is a decent alternate trait.

It's worth mentioning that there is also an alternate racial trait "Fey Thoughts" which replaces Hatred. It adds two skills from a list as class skills and Perception is on the list.

GEAR

FYI I have a house rule about Cold Iron. Cold Iron is described thus:
"This iron, mined deep underground and known for its effectiveness against demons and fey creatures, is forged at a lower temperature to preserve its delicate properties."

The description seems to imply that the material ought to be rare but game-wise it is trivially easy to get. So to bring cold iron in line with the description, the rule is that cold iron is only ever used in masterwork weapons.

Also: You will only need one set of tools for working metal, not two.

CLASS

I see you plan to take a prestige class. Stalwart Defender should be interesting.

FEATS

No problems here.

TRAITS--Thanks for the detailed response there. The d20pfsrd traits filter does a great job of helping you find traits that do the things you want, but it must be restricted by copyright to not show the requirements, and the Archives of Nethys has the details but not the really sweet search capability. Given the restrictions in AON, you are quite right about both of the traits. It will take me some time to sort through the AON traits list, but the "Blooded" regional trait is looking pretty good as a fit with his background--it more or less substitutes for "Hatred" and would allow BG to take the "Fey Thoughts" ability you mention. An alternate would be "Glory of Old" for a regional trait (5 kings mountains). I am also considering "Grounded" for a racial trait, but I could use suggestions if you have them!

As far as the caste trait, I picked the one that seemed the best fit, but mercenary/man at arms didn't seem to have a natural category--he came from a family of dwarven brewers, but they weren't nobles or peasant farmers, so kind of hard to pick. Feel free to suggest an existing caste that you think fits the best or make up a new one for soldiers (as he will stay with Profession/Soldier to support the mercenary angle).

STATS--Yeah, people expect Dwarves to be a bit taciturn, but their average is 8, not 5. I will bump him up to at least average for a Dwarf on that stat so he can actually find employment as a mercenary instead of just alienating everyone. Probably need to bring Con and Int down a bit...I'll see how it works.

Skills--I like the idea of metalwork as a single skill--saves him a skill point and some gold, and he wasn't going to be working in leather or wood anyway.

Gear--I like the idea of starting with a Masterwork Cold Iron Weapon, and with your economic rules, the warhammer would only be about 54 gp. If I start him out with a non-masterwork shield, he should have enough cash for the hammer.

The basic concept of your background is fine.

I think I would rather your character be from Janderhoff than Five Kings Mountains. For three reasons:

1. It justifies that your character would have a bit of knowledge about Varisia in general.
2. You are likely to meet dwarves from Janderhoff during the campaign, but not from the Five Kings Mountains (I don't want to give spoilers if you don't remember the details).
3. The "Blooded" trait is a regional trait for the Mindspin Mountains, and Janderhoff is located on a spur of those mountains.

Janderhoff is as much a "dwarven kingdom" as the Five Kings Mountains, only smaller.

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I'd rather your position as a caravan guard not have to do with Constable Hemlock (note that he is not a Sheriff in this game, because a medieval Sheriff is something very different). As a mercenary it would make more sense that you were hired privately as a caravan guard, or had your own reasons for travelling with the caravan. Constable Hemlock would not have been sending guardsmen beyond the walls, as he needed every hand he had just to garrison the town. Shalelu Andosana provides the scouting he needs better than any of his men could.

Likewise, if you were in Sandpoint during the Swallowtail Festival, I'm sure you would have fought goblins yourself, but then it begs the question as to why you didn't become a town celebrity like the other players did. As a result, I'd rather that either you weren't there for that or that there is some reason that you kept a low profile.

TRAITS

I usually open a page of traits on nethys and then use ctrl-f to find keywords on the page like "perception."

* Blooded is a very good trait for this campaign.

* Remember that you can take a drawback for a third trait as long as one of your traits is a campaign trait. Monster Hunter and Giant Slayer are both decent ones for you, though Giant Slayer includes bonuses that won't stack with Blooded.

* The Militant Merchant trait is a race trait for dwarves that works for caravan guards. It is a 3.5 trait so replace spot and listen with perception.

GEAR

Cold Iron isn't too expensive despite the masterwork requirement. But it's worth mentioning that the party has a number of cold iron weapons already. An alchemical silver warhammer is more expensive but could be worth it, since silver doesn't reduce the damage of bludgeoning weapons.

You might not want to bother with masterwork armor since you are likely to find better armor in the dungeon, and if any of it is heavy armor then you are the only one who is proficient, so it will be yours. I would recommend just getting a suit of regular chainmail for now.

BTW, it came up in another game I was in, but because dwarves' speed is not affected by armor or encumbrance, FYI dwarves can use acrobatics to tumble while wearing plate mail. They won't be good at it mind you. :)

ABILITY SCORES

I don't want you to think you can't play a character with a 5 CHA... just work it into their description and behaviour. It can be limiting in many ways though.

I have just the thing to tweak the backstory to fit. I am getting ready to work on it again...Have you come up with an idea for the proper caste trait?

So, I like "Militant Merchant" thematically, but conditional bonuses are a pain, so I just took "Seeker" instead. "Blooded" works well also. I also did what I could to adapt the "Savage" caste trait, and I think it works okay. And the story works even better I think with BG escorting a few barrels of ale to Sandpoint in time for the Swallowtail festival--which unfortunately, he did not get to attend. It should all be updated--let me know if I need to modify anything else.