Shadows of Aris (Inactive)

Game Master Severed Ronin

Wow, that is a good question. I know that serving Overdeities was also kind of what you didn´t think off and I guess there isn´t really a church, but if there is, what would be mine rank also in that sense? Arch Bishop definetely not! Some kind of traveling missionary or hm... trying to find out more but its GM call in this case. Will be interesting in story and RP wise

PS. Post people post :D We are off the ground!

Ah, I have also additional question: How well is Overdeities known and do they have even big religions or vast amount of religious people / servants / worshippers?

Marcy out of curiosity, what rank would you have been? I'd like to know what to call him.

I agree that Severed should have the final say on that. But, depending on how the military structure is, I'm personally picturing something along the lines of Sergeant. He strikes me more as an enlisted type than a commissioned officer. My 2 cents.

And Arwin, sorry about the less than warm greeting from Marcy. He's a bit untrusting of strangers and (apparently) the clergy. :)

Ahah :D its okey. What would Lawful Evil person expect, serving Goddess of Darkness etc, clerky and so on. No offense taken :)

You're all correct on the fact that those are important questions!

This is why I'm glad we're in beta and I have other like minds to work with. Honestly, even being in the military myself, I never thought about the Imperium's own military rank structure. The same goes for the Church and its own hierarchy. I'll get to work on this right away. Thank you all for thinking of it.

As for the game thread, I'll hold off on the next posts until everyone has had a chance to post and get their characters acquainted. One question I can answer now is Arwin's in regards to the Overdeities. I will post tomorrow though.

Simply put: yes, they are worshipped and known worldwide and most of their temples are the predominant ones as they are aspects that each and every person can agree with. As for deities like Alzue, Den-Azane, Caelum, and the rest, they each represent their own aspect (or portfolio) and therefore have less of a following.

Example: Den-Azane would have a following of primarily evildoers whereas Caelum would have primarily good guys. However, Cerelia may have followers among both: in one view, she could represent everything pertaining to the Night - the moon and stars where to someone of Den-Azane, she could represent a Goddess of Death and Decay.

...if that makes any sense?

Just got my first post up.

@ Sœkja Brjóta: I'm sure there was some opportunities to meet each other during my childhood. If you get any ideas I'm open, let me know.

Just got my first post up.

@ Sœkja Brjóta: I'm sure there was some opportunities to meet each other during my childhood. If you get any ideas I'm open, let me know.

@ Checkerwall Sure we could have met as children with my father being the local Satrap for the north western province. He would have spent time talking with your father working out trade relations. Perhaps we both showed each other the different talents that we had with magic at a young age.

@ Severed Ronin Is the area we are in an anti magic zone? Would I have known?

Soeka
You probably would've known his mother over his father based on his background (father was the dragon his bloodline is derived from). Works just as easily. Also, it is commonly known that the Imperium uses things such as Antimagic Fields, Dispel Magic, and the like to ward itself against potential spellcasters. Whether or not this is one of those situations, given the fact they've also waived the weapons ordinances temporarily, is anyone's guess.

Also, I've worked out a small rank structure for the Imperial Army that will have to do for now. Obviously this is still in the works, but I don't foresee it changing THAT much between now and final draft. A little, but not a lot.

Judging by Marcy and Raignik's backgrounds, I would judge Marcy to be a Ward most likely (maybe a low-ranking Tier Ward) and Raignik to be a Sentinel or low-ranking Ward.

Arwin and Xandar, I'm still working on the Church's Hierarchy. I'll try to have it up soon.

Posting shortly

Here's a rough draft of the Religious Heirarchy. Obviously different temples would have different rank structures, so I tried to come up with something general that can be used for anyone of any deity. I'll work on breaking them down into specifics later.

As for Clerics, Paladins, and Inquisitors, I consider them specialized members of the Church, so they wouldn't necessarily fall into any of these ranks. However, I feel that they're best utilized when they report to a Bishop as the bishop is kind of the middle ground between the truly pious Over Saints and the lower-ranking Initiates. Of course, the higher level you are, the more likely you are to report to someone higher along your chain of command. I would expect a Lvl 20 Cleric to be reporting directly to a Saint or Over Saint just because of how adept they've become. Any thoughts?

Will finish up my equipment at work tomorrow, hope that is ok. IT will be slow tomorrow.

Azara Bandari is my companion so you know.

Take your time, folks. I don't expect things to go quickly this week what with everything going on. I'm just glad we're starting to get off the ground.

1) Initiate - None
2) Apostle - None
3) Priest - Initiate & Apostle
4) High Priest - Several Priests and church if small
5) Bishop - The Priests of his church, and has the right to govern agents of the church, I.e. Cleric or Inquisitors.
6) Archbishop - Higher functioning Inquisitors and Clerics, as well as all below him or her on the totem poll.
7) Saint - " "
8) Over Saint - " "

That seems the most straightforward to me as far as a correlation between religious rank and whom they're responsible for.

Presumably Clerics would begin as Initiates or Apostles and once they become Priests can elect to become agents of their church, instead of taking on Apostles and Initiates themselves as a normal priest would.

That way, if they ever decided to rejoin the order fully they would re-enter at the Priest level, thus able to take on and train new recruits. (Allowing them to use their experiences out in the world as a Cleric/Inquisitor to guide any possibles down the correct path.)

Just my thoughts. =P

Sounds good to me. Its a lot harder to find a decent religious heirarchy setting than it is to come up with a military one. Like I said, this is why its all in beta. Some of the semantics are needed to work out and seeing as how DnD never established a Temple Rank Structure (save for Kalamar), I was working on trying to get you guys an answer as soon as possible.

Sounds good to me. Its a lot harder to find a decent religious heirarchy setting than it is to come up with a military one. Like I said, this is why its all in beta. Some of the semantics are needed to work out and seeing as how DnD never established a Temple Rank Structure (save for Kalamar), I was working on trying to get you guys an answer as soon as possible.

Love KK gnight guys.

Night everyone. Time for me to bail as well. I'm off tomorrow so leave your comments and questions and I'll answer as much as I can. A lot of work to do. Bleh. Peace.

Goodnight and goodluck to the both of you!

@ Soekja
I imagined being borderline juvenile, I was captured at a young age not too many years after my powers manifested, even being careful to hide them; the Imperium tracked me down.
I think you might of been more familiar with the tribe leader(my mom) because your age category is Middle Age. My father was... never around.

The tribe put a good effort in keeping my magic secret, but if you where a trusted regular trader we might recognize each other.

Ok, just reporting in since I had to make some changes to my character sheet:

1)Falcata +6 (since its masterwork)
2)40´ft movement speed (from the boots of striding and springing)
3)Concentration check +16 (+4 CC (feat), +7 CL, +5 wisdom)
4)+2 to cloak of resistance (it was 4000 gp and put +2, to not cause confusion why my saves were higher than they should be)
5)+1 to will = +12 will save (missed +1 from will save due to increase from Headband of Mental Prowess)

@Soekja just wondering when saw your character sheet, but you have forgotten to include your middle-age stats? -1 physical, +1 mental stats.

Also the wealth level is quite huge :S Not blaming or accusing anything (Sorry if I really sound like one) and isn´t your spell-list "arcane" rather than "divine"?

@ Soekja

I imagined being borderline juvenile, I was captured at a young age not too many years after my powers manifested, even being careful to hide them; the Imperium tracked me down.
I think you might of been more familiar with the tribe leader(my mom) because your age category is Middle Age. My father was... never around.

The tribe put a good effort in keeping my magic secret, but if you where a trusted regular trader we might recognize each other.

I am actually 28 the Old Age is a disguise (illusion) I use that is what my uncle looked like when I was very young. My father always said I had an uncanny resemblance to him. :)

Soekja, Arwin brings up a few things though that are important. I never took a look at your inventory (Bad GM!) and looking at it now you are quite a bit over the wealth limit of 25,000 GP.

As for the "Archivist" matter, I can address that. First and foremost, we should change that classes name so as to avoid confusion with the Bardic Archetype: Archivist.

For everyone else to get on the same page, the Archivist class that Soekja sent me is a Divine Variant of a Wizard. Whereas the Cleric casts spontaneously like a Sorcerer, the Archivist prepares spells in a prayerbook like a Wizard and his spellbook.

Still, you should take a look back over those items we addressed, Soekja.

The "Archivist"

Soekja, use the above linked Archivist for your class if you still wish to play one. And, just now noticing it as well, but what is a Trickster? You never sent me anything in regards to that particular subject, so its not approved.

I think until we get a few things sorted out, we're going to have to hold back on your character for a few. As of right now, I'm going to leave it unapproved. No hard feelings, but we'll work on it in here. Sound good?

Also, use Wisdom instead of Intelligence for that build as would be customary for anyone of the Church.

Sorry if it seems like I'm being a d**k but I'm trying to keep the game in balance here given the fact that it is in beta.

In fact, sorry to do this now, and hopefully no one will think less of me, but ix-nay anything I mentioned about anything non-PF. Core classes and APG classes only. Magus is still allowed as well.

Soekja, if this is a problem for you, I'm sorry. You don't have to continue if you don't want. I blame myself for this but a lot of things have been come to light (as I expected would happen for a beta), so for now, I'm limiting the field.

Ignore the aforementioned link.

If anyone wants to back out due to this decision feel free to let me know. I'll do my best to find a replacement.

Leadership feat is ix-nayed too for now as I want to deal in party players alone and not pocket healers, killers, casters, or monkeys. If there is to be an NPC right now, I'll play it.

Okay... So I am a d*** now I guess. Sorry guys.

hum ok..... I have sent you the links and the full work out of the class I was playing. You had approved it. I renamed the prestige class that's all. Same mechanics. I took leadership and my cohort made all of the magic Items we have using my starting gold +npc starting gold 25,000gp +4,300gp = 29300gp

since she was making the items for us double that 58,600 gp and that's what I spent on items for us.

As far as Leadership goes you didn't say we couldn't take that. If you are going to completely roto-router my character I would request that you restart the game on this coming Monday with a fresh board and re-posted intro.

I will just play a rogue/fighter to avoid any further rules lawyering debates.

Sorry if I am sounding like a d%*k.

First and foremost, I agree with you. I already mentioned that I'm to blame for having failed to nix Leadership to begin with. Maybe I was vague in my explanation as to why, so here it is. I find that it simply adds too much power/functionality for the cost of one feat. The player expends one feat and effectively gets a second PC with all that entails. Sure the second PC is weaker than the primary PC, but its outweighed in that simple regard by the aforementioned statement. I realize this was not your intention in taking the feat, but my decision will stand.

I have also stated that it was not my intention to audit the rules, but I will remind everyone that as GM, I am well within my right to do so. However, I did fail in regards to fully scrutinizing characters and I offer apologies if the assumption was that I'm completely revamping yours. It is your character and I understand why you're upset. However, this leads me to the simple matter of the game itself and a complete rebirth of it. If there is to be a restart of it, I will leave it up to the group.

Here, however, is where the real Rules Lawyer comes in. I am GM. I make the rules. I am sorry if I offended you, but problems were brought to my attention by multiple people about your character. I am sorry that some things were brought about by my own failure to include additional rules that didn't come to mind until later. Still they were brought into play for a reason.

If there are any objections by anyone to any of this feel free to bow out now. I refuse to use this forum as a digital debate club.

I'm a gamer. Not a politician.

Personally, I'm alright with the rulings although they don't directly effect me.

I'll say right now that I intend to stay whether or not we restart the thread. I've been enjoying this thus far and plan to see it through.

I'd also like to throw out that I'm in agreement with Ronin's take on Leadership. I myself had been quite a user (abuser) of the feat in the past, and no longer allow myself to take it. It has a habit of mucking things up and off-setting game balance. But that's just in the games I've played in.

The other requests, such as sticking to PF core also seem reasonable--if unfortunate for a few.

On a much more selfish note: I hear there'll be an update to the Magus soon, would you be alright with it Ronin if I altered things accordingly upon it's release?

As soon as the update comes out and I get ahold of it, you're welcome to make the adjustments accordingly.

And you can make the checks anytime you feel like something may be amiss. Of course, rolling when prompted is appreciated as well.

I also want to say thank you for staying. I'm trying to make it enjoyable and you've given me insight into aspects of Aris I missed before.

Its the balance of the characters, the workings of the game, online, in a beta version that is most important. and any confusion can cause problems; so this sounds good.

I can wait, thxgiving weekend wont be too busy for me, so I can go either way on a restart. catching up wouldn't take much either if we just kept going.

Leadership is great if we have one or 2 players, or if the party is missing something needed. I agree it might be too much for this game.

Its important to remember this is for fun. we are not playing against each other, or super optimizing our characters.

...

Leadership is great if we have one or 2 players, or if the party is missing something needed. I agree it might be too much for this game.

Its important to remember this is for fun. we are not playing against each other, or super optimizing our characters.

This was a hard lesson for me to learn in my DnD development, always comparing my character to others, trying to squeeze out every advantage in-laid within the system. Making sure I could best the others with every technical advantage.

I'm sure we've all had experiences with that.

Surprise surprise, after doing that for a time it turned out it wasn't very fun anymore...

Anyway I have no good closing line for this post, so I'll just wish those who observe it a happy Thanksgiving. =]

Yah, I am ok to continue and have no intention to leave :)

Also, although not in USA, wishing happy Thanksgiving day to those who have it :)

I'm in. I agree with the take on leadership. I've had that feat ruin a game I ran once. It really is great for a game with less than the ideal number of characters otherwise it does really mess things up.

I also have no intentions of leaving, whether we start over or continue on. Really enjoying myself, and looking forward to see where the game goes.

I don't have anything to say regarding your ruling that hasn't already been said, and I have no personal experience with the leadership feat. In principal, it does seem to lend itself better to fewer PC's. This is already a larger group than I have ever played with. And having DM'ed a bit back in the AD&D days, I agree whole-heartedly with the idea that the GM makes the rules (assuming the GM isn't a tyrant, which you don't seem to be). So you have my full support there.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving all. :)

Um, howdy! Not sure if I'm imposing or anything so if I am, let me know. Alexander Kilcoyne said that my best bet on finding a game was to ask people running them. I saw yours was recruiting so was wondering if you had a spot left. I saw a couple others threads but I've played Crimson Throne already and didn't want to meta-game. Also saw a Rogue Trader one but I'm unfamiliar with its system. Then I stumbled on your guys' thread and read a little and got hooked. I was wondering if you had room for one more?

We where just about to restart after a little hiccup. Our game is still new, so you got here just in time. If Soekja doesn't respond soon, I'd say you found a spot.

Severed Ronin is our DM his e-mail is xanatos_grey@yahoo.com

First of all, you aren't imposing or anything like that. At least, I don't consider it such. Secondly, like Checker explained, we had a bit of a mechanical issue, and currently standing by for one of our players, Soekja, to respond as to whether he still wants to play. If he doesn't you're welcome to join. If he does, sorry to turn you down. Lastly what were you considering playing?

@ Severed Ronin
Would you mind rolling HP for Elijah anyway? Getting his char up might take a little while, and if Soekja isn't updating his then we can pick it up without him.

@ Elijah Nocturne
We will be happy to help you get started, Severed Ronin is pretty good about it if you have questions, just not fights. Hes working on his own campaign and this is the first run, but it should be a good game.

What does everyone else think? Shall we gather our party and venture forth?

I agree, checker. If soekja doesn't decide to stay on it would be nice to have another player ready to go. Personally, I'm anxious to get going. :)

Lastly what were you considering playing?

I had a couple concepts in mind which is up to the group.

1) Elven Barbarian w/ Elven Curve Blade - "The Graceful Rager"
2) Tiefling Alchemist - "The Mad Bomber"

I've used both concepts before, but I'm strongly leaning towards the Alchemist just because of the whole psychological aspect behind it. I like the Tiefling because he's kind of an outcast and fits right in with the vision I have for the alchemist.

Yeah, I think I'll stat my Alchemist up. Will work on that tonight and should have him ready to roll by tomorrow. I can just tone this one down to ... Level 7, right?

Level 7 is correct.

I like the Tiefling Alchemist better, Haven't seen one played yet.

You got it, we are restarting/barely started so all the character creation rules still apply. 32 point build like in the house rules button. You should be able to find everything you need here, but do contact the GM about a back story and character sheet approval. He was pretty good about helping me.

I agree, checker. If soekja doesn't decide to stay on it would be nice to have another player ready to go. Personally, I'm anxious to get going. :)

I'll throw in my support. Pretty eager to continue this game. =)

Tiefling Alchemist sounds good to me. Go ahead and stat him up.

Also, everyone, I know I forgot to mention it, but gear you get for free:

1) Bag of Holding I
2) Waterskin
3) Flint and steel
4) Bedroll
5) 50' Hemp Rope
6) Belt Pouch
7) One additional outfit of your choice

As far as if I still want to play or not, yes I would. I will need a couple of days to put together something though.

Are their any other feats or spells that are not allowed?

Are Prestige Classes Spells Feats Magic Items out of the Adventure Paths, or Companion/Chronicles books put out under the pathfinder line allowed?

or, are you only allowing: Core Rulebook & Advanced Players Guide

I will try to get the character done within 48 hrs of this response.

I suppose I missed out then.

Just got my character done not too long ago and was going to wait on someone to check it out. I didn't take that many Formulae in my Formula List because I wasn't sure how many I would have had access to despite being Level 7. I have the ones I have access to prepared though. Didn't spend a lot of money. I saw Elijah as one to take the Pistol so I gave him Firearm Weapon Proficiency along with 100 cartridges of ammunition for the Breach-Loading Pistol.

If its all the same to you guys, could I keep my character here on like a waiting list in case someone needs to drop out or something?

Yah for sure! You have my support, since you asked and went and did everything already. You are first one to get inside if someone stops. Although I would like to say that, but Severed Ronin makes the decision but I guess we all are thinking along the same lines

@Elijah - First one on the waiting list.

@Soul - Core, APG, Aasimar and Tiefling races in addition to all of my posted material which is already cleared for my world. The items we stated before are still a no-go. As before if you have any doubts, second guesses, or just pure questions as to anything, come to me and we'll figure it out together.

To everyone the same rules apply as before with the addendum that should something become a problem either in-game or later on down the line, the GM has final say on it. I'll try not to have to exercise that power again, but if it happens, my forewarned apologies.

Alright, I should be getting the revised thread up and running within the next day or so. We'll just stick with this thread as the OOC thread (nothing new) and we'll go from there. For the purpose of updates:

Checker: Sorcerer
Marcy: Fighter
Raignik: Magus
Arwin: Cleric
Xandar: Inquisitor
Soul: ?????

Waiting List
Elijah: Alchemist

For those of us such as Marcy and Arwin who's postings would be unaffected by the change of characters...Would you want us to copy paste and pick up from where we left off?

Or are we completely resetting everything and all things?

That much is up to you guys. If you want to change, go for it. If not, then copy/paste.

Well, I will copy & paste since not feeling like writing again huge amount of wall of text :D and it looks quite nice in that way, since we got something to add and now those will join can read before hand what was posten and add their own style & taste to introduction

PS: Guess we can soon start, when LostSoul gets his char here today

Yup, that's all I'm waiting on before reposting the thread. Plus I'm trying to deal with fixing a hole in my wall.