Ruins of Pathfinder: Road to Damnation (Inactive)

Game Master Crustypeanut

Welcome to Ruins of Pathfinder: Road to Damnation's discussion thread!

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Profile is updated. I found some mistakes and corrected them. I still need to pick a mythic feat, but I've spent three hours getting the profile done and my wife is about to kill me. I have midterms all next week, so I have to get studying.

We don't get a mythic feat until we get our first mythic tier, right?

I'm sure he meant Mythic Trait.. he didn't pick one yet according to his profile, though I'm assuming he went Hierophant.

I could always be wrong :P

Can't wait to do this with y'all! I mentioned in the Recruitment thread but I leave for a camping trip Friday and return on Sunday. Depending on when the first gameplay post is up, I may or may not get anything posted until Sunday night or Monday day.

Also in case you missed it, Jack, I noticed here that you're LN. Is that a typo? If not I'm totally curious. I can imagine a LN Rogue -- one could be quite interesting -- but in your very first post you con a random merchant, which seems less than Lawful. I'd love to hear what your alignment means to you.

Aluriel, you've somehow created *two* super creative character ideas for this campaign. I'm impressed...and glad you switched to Aluriel, as (while I'm sure she'll be a handful sometimes too) I can better see her participating in a party. I saw her curse is Wasting. How does it manifest for her?

EDIT: As far as Mythic Paths/Traits, I think Aluriel and Unafe both ride the line between being suited for Heirophant & a more martial path. Aluriel/Matt, let me know your preferences. If you're going straight Heirophant I may move closer into Guardian. On the other hand, if your preferred path is one of the more martial ones Unafe can easily go straight Heirophant. And hey, if you're considering a martial path...it'd be awesome to have a Marshal in our party, and it seems like it could be a good thematic fit for Aluriel.

As far as spellcasting, 4/8 of the party are casters, but it's interesting: only one of us (Sasbek) has their highest stat in their spell casting stat (and even there it's only a 17 Cha). Xander and Aluriel have 18s in Dex & Str (respectively) with 14 Chas, and Unafe has a 17 Str & 16 Wis. Long story short, it seems like we're better suited as a party to spells that don't require a save.

Unafe's casting will focus on summoning and support, and I expect her to cast some at the beginning of an encounter but (especially at early levels) to spend most of her time in melee, flanking with Yakini. I know Xander expects to spend most combats firing his gun...and I see that Aluriel's first Mystery is Weapon Mastery (Fauchard).

Also Aluriel, sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I just noticed you're trying to use Heirloom Weapon to get Fauchard proficiency...which the trait can't do (unless Crusty houserules it). It'll give you a bonus proficiency in any martial weapon but doesn't gain you exotic proficiencies.

Straight champion for Gi'chak, though I probably will be turning his revolver into an awesome artifact :D Had fun playing around leveling him all the way up to 20/10 last night, really excited!

Heriloom Weapon used to be so ridiculous, but now it's kind of unusable. I thought it could grant you proficiency, but only with a single non-masterwork weapon, that you would be unable to turn into a magic item. Either way it got nerfed hard.

Edit: Heirloom Weapon
Actually, if we assume that she had the spell masterwork transformation cast on it, she could do it. That spell makes it not so useless any more :p

Yo.

So I was thinking that to make Nexander more epic, instead of him looking for an artifact so that he doesn't get killed, that his father was a member of a secret order of gunslingers. The first member of their order was the man who invented black powder and gunsmithing on Golarion. He was a worshipper of Abadar and spent his whole life trying to make the perfect firearm. Eventually, when he was very old, he succeeded in making the perfect revolver. Abadar was pleased with his servant and put the weapon in the First Vault. This all happened a long time ago.

The Order was continued by his disciples with the goal of recovering or copying The Revolver. By the time Arvinder came along, all the Order had been killed off except for him by inquisitors of Abadar trying to stamp out the Order to protect the contents of the First Vault. He trained Nexander so that one day he could take over in the order (without telling him that was why). After his injury he tasked Xander with finding The Revolver, which set him on his path of adventure.

Sound good?

Don't want to step on Gi'chak's toes, but I've been planning from the beginning to take the Legendary Weapon stuff from the mythic book for Nexander's revolver to go along with my Artifact Hunter story trait.

If you approve the above Crusty, I'll write in more detail and put it in Xander's backstory.

Hey, we can both have badass gun's I'm fine with this :) Is yours going to talk? I'm not sure if I want to go that route or not, I think it would totally fit Gi'chak to have arguments with his gun though :p

Probably not. Nexander likes to talk too much. Unless this campaign takes us to Axis and we do a B&E on the First Vault he'll probably get stuck with making a "copy" of The Revolver. He'd rather have a dumb tool than someone who's going to argue with him.

No need to change your backstories - you can develop your mythic potential as we go - you guys still had excellent backstories, and I wasn't by any means requiring a backstory with mythic potential.

Are you cool with the change though? I like it better than "I don't want to die so I want an artifact". Not only is it more epic, it makes more sense.

Mines not so much a change as an addition. It was an idea I had originally when I created Gi'chak, I was just too lazy to develop it at the time :p So yeah I'll add it into his background when I get a chance if it's okay with you :)

Yeah it is better than that, so go ahead with it :P

@Unafe

Lawful is definitely what I was going for, but when you think lawful, don't think 'I follow the law'. Think 'I have a code, a checklist if you will, of how things should go and I should behave'. And believe me, this code has nothing to do with the laws of the land. He's lawful in the same way that the captain of a pirate ship might be lawful if that makes any sense.

In General

I didn't attempt to make Jack mythic really. In fact, I purposefully gave him a name like 'Jack' and a backstory that wasn't incredibly drama filled or laced with death. I just gave him the hint of savantism and a need to be mythic. So the potential was clearly there, but the means weren't available until now. So it's all self motivating.

That's the idea, anyway. Hoping I did a good job getting that across. :P

Sasbrek will be a sneaky ambush blaster (still crying over the loss of that awesome bloodline arcana from the kobold bloodline). I expect to play every kobold archetypical trait in a straight way, so pettiness craftiness sneakiness and everything else...

Oh and he will probably die eaten by Yakini trying to eat her eggs. If he survives that, he will become the mightiest of the dragons!

I didn't take Common (Taldane), should I switch out one of my languages for it? It didn't really make sense for the character to speak a language of Avistan.

I'd suggest a switch. I think Common has permeated the greater region such that it's most people's second language (even in Qadira) and very useful for talking to folks from other nations.

If you don't, you'll probably find yourself asking us to translate frequently, which slows things down.

Ardeshir, you would know Common, Ignan, and Kelish - Common being the language everyone starts with, Kelish being your homeland's language, and Ignan for your racial heritage.

You will not miss out on *too* much not being able to speak Osiriani or Garundi.

Also, i'm going to be having the gameplay post up today!

Also, everyone, I would like to let you know that the Corruption mechanics mentioned in the recruitment thread will not be seen until you've gained your first Mythic Tier - once you do, then I will post the mechanics of that in the Campaign tab for all to see.

I took one rank in linguistics, I counted Kelish as my starting language (common), but are you saying that everyone starts with Taldan (common)? If so, does that mean I can still keep my Osiriani?

Everyone starts with Common - I'd much rather everyone have a common language between 'em, though if by your character's design, you want to have the handicap of not being able to speak Common, I'll allow it.

If you're Qadiran you would probably speak Taldan. They border, and are old enemies.

You would automatically get Taldan (all PCs get) and Kelesh. Then one more for your rank in linguistics.

And so it begins!

Awwwwww snap!

-goes to read-

So Gi'chak gets common for free, starts with Goblin, and the rank in linguistics I took would change to giving him Polyglot :) I'll edit that in when I fix the background.

and make a first (well, second) post it seems...

I have midterms all next week. All of my tests in medical school are do or die. I will post as much as I can during breaks over the weekend and next week. If I have not posted something and you would like to move the game on, please take any reasonable action for my character.

I apologize for this, but I have to get past these tests or $200,000 and five years goes down the drain. I will be back to regular posting next Saturday.

I have midterms all next week. All of my tests in medical school are do or die. I will post as much as I can during breaks over the weekend and next week. If I have not posted something and you would like to move the game on, please take any reasonable action for my character.

I apologize for this, but I have to get past these tests or $200,000 and five years goes down the drain. I will be back to regular posting next Saturday.

No worries! Thanks for the heads up, and I understand. Good luck with those tests :P

Yeowch! Good luck Aluriel!

gah, really shouldn't have tried to post now, but I got excited and it was a fun post to write. I love getting to play weird characters.

The last time I played a goblin character - and the first time in Pathfinder, I might add, as we had just changed over to the ruleset - I played a Goblin Cleric of Calistra named Gobgob. I had no idea she was one of the big Elven deities, nor had I known much of the goblin lore beyond "Goblins don't read" and our group's rule of "Goblins love to eat/snort chalk". I had just wanted a goblin cleric with a whip of the goddess of prostitutes.

He.. ended up dying to gargoyles while distracting them long enough to help the others get away. He hadn't meant to sacrifice himself of course, but he went out with a bang. During that same character, I also was possessed by a devil and forced to kill the other character I was playing, an Elf Rogue - while the goblin was all but naked, having just woken up with nothing but a loincloth and his necklace on.

Thats what he gets for harboring a furby-shaped devil lord in disguise, calling it his son.

My DM was wierd. But so were we.

Aluriel, you've somehow created *two* super creative character ideas for this campaign. I'm impressed...and glad you switched to Aluriel, as (while I'm sure she'll be a handful sometimes too) I can better see her participating in a party. I saw her curse is Wasting. How does it manifest for her?

Thanks for the compliment! 8) Once I read more about the campaign, I saw that my initial assumptions on where it might go were flawed. I always try to make a character to fit into a campaign, which is why I create new characters for every application. Games are the most fun when DMs are passionate about their creation, and I always want to tap into that.

EDIT: As far as Mythic Paths/Traits, I think Aluriel and Unafe both ride the line between being suited for Heirophant & a more martial path. Aluriel/Matt, let me know your preferences. If you're going straight Heirophant I may move closer into Guardian. On the other hand, if your preferred path is one of the more martial ones Unafe can easily go straight Heirophant. And hey, if you're considering a martial path...it'd be awesome to have a Marshal in our party, and it seems like it could be a good thematic fit for Aluriel.

Grr, I spent almost two hours creating the fauchard on the cover of my packet. I wanted to use the WAR art and so felt I needed to composite the weapon out of his art as well to keep the same style. No worries however, I'll switch it to a Guisarm (as a horsechopper isn't in character). If push comes to shove I'll take Martial Weapon Prof: Polearms but I'm trying not to spend a feat or revelation on a weapon prof.

I will read up on marshal if I can do so without my wife executing me. I see Aluriel as a battlefield buffer/combatant and if I don't go marshal am unlikely to go Heirophant. There is a lot of overlap between Champion/Guardian, but I see myself more likely to go Champion. Either way, I don't think we have to choose right now, so I have a little time.

I dropped the feat Combat Reflexes for Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Fauchard. I spent too much time on the pic to drop it. 8)

I picked up Mana Waste Survivor as it was closest to my character history. It gives me +1 to hit with any weapon group and I chose Polearms. To me it is the equivalent of Weapon Focus, only with a weapon group instead of one weapon, so it's worth more than a feat. If you'll let me take the Fauchard proficiency instead of the +1 to hit with polearms I'd love the trade because I already have weapon focus from being an oracle. If not, it's a trait bonus and stacks, so whichever is fine.

Aluriel's "wasting" curse is represented by the truly massive amount of scars she has. I don't want her to look undead or anything, but she looks like she's really been through the wringer and is on her last legs.

I thought it would be really characterful to take Tongues: Celestial but that seems more a punishment for the rest of the group than me and so I didn't think it fair.

Aluriel should be updated and ready to go. Still haven't chosen exactly what path I will go but it will almost certainly come down to Champion or Marshall.

Going to be lurking about keeping tabs on this campaign so don't mind me. Want to see how everything turns out and be ready to drop in if one of you drops out. Normally I wouldn't comment on something I am technically no longer a part of but had to pipe up on this. Reach trip 18-20 crit range and it is a twohander, fauchard is one of the few times when spending a feat on exotic weapon is actually decent so... just my two cents. Good luck with medschool and good luck to everyone else in making your characters shine.

The Hand and I have come up with a way to allow him to simply not fall into the shadows - he'll be a bit of a recurring NPC for a bit until I can give him a good exit. Plus, this'll allow him to easily be called upon as a backup character if we lose someone, as he's one of the first I'd pick for that.

You will all see soon ;)

Also, loving the posts so far - with five of the eight posts, I think I can start describing the villa soon, and allow the other three to incorporate that into their arrival post.

I dropped the feat Combat Reflexes for Exotic Weapon Proficiency: Fauchard. I spent too much time on the pic to drop it. 8)

I picked up Mana Waste Survivor as it was closest to my character history. It gives me +1 to hit with any weapon group and I chose Polearms. To me it is the equivalent of Weapon Focus, only with a weapon group instead of one weapon, so it's worth more than a feat. If you'll let me take the Fauchard proficiency instead of the +1 to hit with polearms I'd love the trade because I already have weapon focus from being an oracle. If not, it's a trait bonus and stacks, so whichever is fine.

The bonus stacks, and will upgrade upon Mythic Ascension - so you'd have to take the feat for proficiency. If you stick with Champion for your Ascension, you'll love the upgrade ;)

These Mythic Traits are pretty powerful, but thats what I was aiming for. With you guys soon to be Mythic, lets just say things get crazy.

I'm finishing up Sasbrek's gear, mostly wands and scrolls.

I assume pretty much anything magical he owns is something he stole or something given to him by the other Nexian arcanists he traveled to Sothis too. Is it ok to get a half-empty wand, with this justification?

EDIT: errors should be fixed.

Yeah go ahead - though if you purchase any wands later on, you'll have to buy the full wand. Starting with one might justify a partially used wand however, as one can easily explain that you purchased a full one at one time in the past and have since been using it, or perhaps were given a hand-me-down wand with fewer uses left.

Just stopping in to say hello and thank you all for being interested in Ruins of Pathfinder! I'm really excited to see what Crusty does in this post-apocalyptic sandbox of ours and I'm really impressed by everyone's characters!

Yes, but without the Knowledge(History/Nobility) check, your character doesn't know that.

Alrighty, I was referring to the changes to his background I was going to make above (and which I should do today), where he was shown the symbol. So hows about he recognizes the symbol, but apart from associating Halib with it he doesn't know much about the organization itself?

Robert, thanks for inventing such a cool setting, and letting Crusty and the rest of us play in it!

All, I just got home from camping. Hope to make a find enough time between family duties and sleep to write a worthy first post.

DM Crustypeanut wrote:

Yes, but without the Knowledge(History/Nobility) check, your character doesn't know that.

Alrighty, I was referring to the changes to his background I was going to make above (and which I should do today), where he was shown the symbol. So hows about he recognizes the symbol, but apart from associating Halib with it he doesn't know much about the organization itself?

Yeah thats fine, then.

@Unafe: Looking forward to it!

I'm going to be moving us along a wee bit, describing the Villa tomorrow; Those who have not posted by then can still do so, of course.

I am really sorry for my lack of productive posting. I hope to get something up soon.

How do I remove campaigns from my summary page if I don't play in them any longer? Two of them had minimized themselves into little inactive lines, but the other day they sprang back to wonderful technicolor.

I don't want to be reminded of the games that died, or worse yet, the ones where I didn't care for the DM/players.

Can anyone help me out with this?

You can't, the DM has to mark the campaigns as inactive, or remove you and your character from the list of "active players/characters" in the campaign info tab editing screen.

However, there's an easier way to see all the threads you're involved with that doesn't need your profile's campaign tab. If you go to

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/community/campaigns

then hit the button that says Focus to the left of the search box, it will reduce the list of displayed threads to only the ones you are in.

Thanks for the advice on the campaign tab, I'm going to try it out.

I've been looking at Mythic Paths.

Marshal is really for paladins, bards and some clerics. It does virtually nothing for me unfortunately.

Heirophant helps my buffs a bit, but unless they become my whole focus, I don't see it being all that.

Guardian shores up my main weakness - my defense, while helping offense.

Champion maximizes my offense, but more in a charge in, berzerker kind of way.

I am going to look at them more closely after this week, but these are my initial thoughts.

Aluriel, your mileage may vary but I found the "Sidebar: [Pathname] Builds" for each Path helpful in finding the range within them. I think all the paths have room for more than just the styles you describe.

You should clearly choose something else if the Marshall options don't fit the play style you envision for Aluriel...but I'll say (while you'd have less choices than a paladin or cleric) I think there are enough abilities that fit either a protective or avenging angel theme. Just looking at tier 1:

• Menacing Presence - take advantage of your high Intimidate by demoralizing as a Move -- and demoralizing all foes within 30' as a Move, if you spend one Mythic Power (super flavorful and powerful)
  
• Painful Gambit - purposefully trigger an AoO from a foe, spend 1 MP, and all allies within reach get a free AoO against the foe (very flavorful for a martyr-type)
  
• Distracting Assailant - spend 1 MP when you hit a foe to make it lose it's DEX bonus to AC against any attack except yours. The duration is extended another round every time you hit it. (aid your allies by bashing heads! handy against one tough foe, especially if the rogue is at hand)
  
• Perfect Aid - makes aiding another much more powerful. (cool from a guardian angel angle, and combines nicely with...)
  
• Heroic Block - when someone swings at an ally, spend 1 MP as immediate action. You get to move x2, ending adjacent to the foe and aid their AC. (all of that as an immed. action seems pretty saucy, and very guardian-angelesqe)
  

Hope it's clear this is listed as brainstorming (from one player trying to learn the new rules to another) not pressure. I'm excited to see however you choose to build Aluriel out.

Don't forget, you can also combine two paths with the Dual Path feat - a Battle Oracle could do very well with both the Hierophant and Guardian/Champion paths, for example.

Its definitely a new system - for you guys and for me, but I think we're going to have a seriously fun time exploring its capabilities together.

I've got a table here with builds for each path. Marshal came out surprisingly strong and heirophant amazingly weak. Guardian was the clear winner however.

Here's the thing with Marshal - paladins can give everyone in 30' the benefit of their smite or channelers can pass out all kinds of benefits. Bards double the bonuses they give. Sure, I can do some cool things. They become MUCH more powerful however.

Aluriel is a reach fighter who uses her action to cast buffs and melees on attacks of opportunity. She may summon some monsters, but then again, she may not. She mostly buffs.

Champion:
Mythic weapon training is awesome
Ever ready kind of replaces Combat Reflexes but not really
Blowback is good, but not as good as Cage Enemy
Incredible parry is good, but takes an action
Penetrating Damage should be unnecessary due to my spells
Clinical Master is great
Perfect strike is very good
Sweeping strike would be good, but I fight during attacks of opportunity
Critical Master II is great

Guardian:
Fast Healing I, II, III, IV would give me fast healing 20 for 4 minutes a day.
Cage Enemy stops an opponent in their square when they spark an AOO
Impervious Body I, II, III gives me DR 15/epic for three minutes a day
Invincible Stand adds DR 20/epic to my DR for 1 minute a day
Mythic Resolve lets me reroll important saving throws

Heirophant:
Divine Guardian lets me summon for free. meh
Mighty Summons makes my summons more powerful
Sustained by Faith is a ring of sustenance. meh
Divine metamastery is a metamagic rod for 10 rnds
Enduring blessing is Persistent Spell
I ran out of choices I wanted after this.

Marshal:
Menacing Presence is pretty darn good. Enemies in 30' are -2 to all rolls (shaken)
Press the Advantage gives everyone an extra attack if one of us crits
Rise Up allows others to use my surges
Confidence gives me more surges, which isn't bad
Words of Hope allows all allies to get rerolls
Beacon of Hope makes me a paladin-lite
Castigate is language independent Intimidate
Fight On keeps others up as long as I am. They can't be killed.
Inspiring Assault gives everyone a move or extra attack
Unswerving Loyalty pretty much makes me immune to mind affecting spells

Like I said, Marshal isn't bad, it's just much better for a bard, paladin or chanelling cleric.

On the other hand, Guardian is incredible for me.

As to Aluriel's personality, hopefully it will come out more over time. She is an avenging angel. She follows Vidreis, the Empereal Lord of Martyrs and Hatred toward Evil. Aluriel's running thoughts are pretty much "I hate this, I hate that. This sucks, that sucks. The world needs to burn and we should just start over."

Aluriel is a Fallen angel. Yes, there is a lot more to her than that, but that's basically what she is.

And I don't feel pressured. I like your ideas and I am more than simply open to your comments, I actively court them. Marshal certainly isn't bad and is much better on a second look. I'm not sure it's Aluriel, but it absolutely makes Paladins, Bards, channeling Clerics and Summoners OMG nasty.

Vildeis* - you've typo'd that previously and seem to keep doing it, so I wanted to make that clear on her name's spelling :D

But yeah, I actually have been less than impressed with many of the Hierophant's abilities - except, of course, their "Divine Surge" abilities, which are all pretty good - Inspired Spell being one of my favorites, and likely the primary reason I'd grab the Hierophant path as a battle-oriented oracle, as it seriously increases your versatility, allowing you to cast any divine spell on your class' spell list of a spell you can cast, even if its not one you know. Not to mention, you can add apply metamagic feats you know to this spell and it counts as 2 levels higher.

Though, I do realize that in my play tests, this is not a swift action as I previously thought - which may have.. skewered.. the results... especially considering the two Mythic Inflict Serious Wounds spells a round slaughtering the PCs in one test... hehe