Okay, crunch tomorrow, but story today. My muse sometimes waits until the last minute.
Talingarde, land of the free. A land where everybody is equal under Mitra. That is why they spent their life savings to get on a boat and ride to their new home. To find that equal does not mean the same thing if you aren't human.
The honorable soldiers of Talingarde visited a tavern where a young gnome woman served. One of the few jobs she could get. Her daughter scurried around cleaning up. People didn't notice her often and she heard all of the talk of how the soldiers would violate her mother. How their enormous manhoods would break her. how far their catapults could launch her. How it was strictly one at a time or their lances would meet in the middle.
It was not a surprise to young Jorda when her mother was found dead, bleeding from her nethers. It seems that they did break her. Her body was covered with the scent of frankincense and cinnamon, a familiar scent from the captain of the guards. A young baker with a little orcish blood was hanged for the crime.
She couldn't fight. A tiny gnome girl against professional soldiers? Hah. But she couldn't leave it alone. The church of Mitra advised one to forgive one's enemies, even as they blessed crusades of soldiers. She would need a new church.
Asmodeus seeks those who are clever and resourceful. He leaves seeds of knowledge for those who need it. She sought out power and found a lord she could believe in. It was clear that worshipping Asmodeus meant devoting your soul to him. He would use you as he needed and sacrifice you. But if you served his interests well, he would give you power. Talingarde worshipped Mitra, so Asmodeus had an interest in fighting Talingarde.
Jorda read the texts and gained power. At first, wild dogs with red eyes attacked the soldiers. Guardsmen began dying, found in pools of blood and assaulted in the most shameful way. The began to patrol in groups, and that prevented attacks for a while. Things calmed down and they relaxed. Captain Aldric stood down the heightened alert and things went back to normal.
But in one alley, a fiend lurked. She had learned to cloak herself in fiendish form. The captain was skilled, and had armor and weapons. So she waited. The next girl he assaulted was half-elven. and it was only after he unbuckled his armor that the devil struck. The captain fought, but the sharp claws drew out his lifeblood. The girl ran. She was braver than Jorda expected as she brought forces from the church to take down the beast that had saved her. They wouldn't listen as she told who the real beast was. The lass would not speak ill of the dead.
Talingarde protected their own, and Captain Aldric was given a funeral with full honors for dying facing a fiend. Jorda got a brand and chains that kept her from summoning.
There's been a lot of great stories and characters-might spruce mine up when I get gone even, as mine's more summary than story. Also, Jing: the non-combat feat. Could I take Spell Focus? Or is that too much of a combat spell?
@Behzar: Spell Focus is a combat feat IMO. Almost all spells that would be augmented by this, are combat related. (Even Compulsion spells have large applications in combat.) So the answer is no to using Spell Focus as a non combat feat.
I'd figured as much, which is why I went with skill focus. Just wanted to be sure. Thanks!
So my current train of thought is to try and create some form of Grappler Monk, secondary goal is to create a Ki Monk.
The basic idea is that he is big, large and powerful, he was a part of some martial arts sect or something, a prized pupil. One day he gets in a confrontation with a rival sect and gets challenged to a duel by one of their students. This duel quickly becomes a duel to the death and I grab hold of my opponent tightly and just never let go, strangling him. . Ever since, I have developed an appreciation for that single moment after you have crushed them hard enough between your hands to see their life just... pass...
But mechanically, I am having a bit of a rougher idea trying to decide exactly how I am going to go about building him, and what he will be able to do :/
That said, I think I have narrowed it down to 2 different options.
First off, hes a Human Monk intent on grappling, unarmed strikes and however much Ki powers I can grant him :/
Option A
A Monk with the Tetori Archetype and with Monk Vows. The free archetype will be the Ki Mystic archetype.
Option B
A regular Monk with Monk Vows and the Qinggong archetype, and the Ki Mystic as the free archetype.
The thing is that the Teori is definitely THEE Grappling Archetype, but most of its defining features are quite high leveled, and for the first few levels I can duplicate most of what I want from the class by using feats . On the other hand, Ki Mystic will help me get more out of my Ki pool, and a bit sooner, but it replaces Still Mind (which Monk Vows need...). Finally the Qinggong Archetype lets me choose some interesting things to do with my Ki, but the Tetori Archetype replaces all chances to use it :/
So I will keep thinking about this :S
I also saw the Hamatulatsu Master Archetype that has Stunning Fist as a very central part of it, which with Stunning Pin could be an interesting combination. BUT, it has very unusable fluff, namely its exclusive to a crazy order of Female cultists :/
Any chance I could just use this Archetypes crunch and make up my own fluff for the rather cruel fighting style?
Oh I also saw the Elemental Monk archetype. Lol wtf is that? XD That archetype seems utterly bonkers kinds of broken... Nope. Not touching that one... >_>
Quick note: As for the double Archetype thing, Monks get Bonus Feats. LOTS of them. If my "free" archetype replaces my normal Bonus feats with a specific set , then do I still get my regular set of Bonus Feats? This seems like it could be easily abused, but I will try not to :(
Hmmmm... More thinking to do :S
@Gobo Horde: I appreciate the idea, but as a player I have seen how Grappling builds are completely broken. The only thing that remotely stops a grappler is large monsters.
This particular AP given that you yourselves are the MONSTERS, means that this particular build will become impossibly broken and will turn many big bad encounters into... You grapple, they become stuck and unable to do anything, the entire team murders all other opposition and then turn to the helpless big bad.
It's a fantastic build, indeed and can be fun but not completely broken in most campaigns but I truly believe it will not be something I will be able to GM against as a lower level GM in this particular campaign.
Firstly, thanks for being honest :)
I am very knowledgeable when it comes to the rules and can craft powerful things quite easily, and sometimes I get a bit too carried away :/
This is probably one of those times ^_^
However, I have come to learn throughout my years of playing this game that often a weaker character is more enjoyable to play with then just a ball of stats with a backstory whitewashed over top.
Let me restart this process and rethink about what it is I want to create and I will come back with a fresher, less highly tuned character :)
It might possibly still be a Monk, and it my still have a bit of grapple ability, but if it does, it will have smaller numbers and be a distant secondary strength, mostly to be used on mooks :p
But I do want to re-look again at some other options with a fresher outlook :)
Sounds good?
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@daynen I specifically mentions Scorpion because it does scale pretty well all the way to 11th level
@gobo hoard: honestly if I were to go monk, I'd love to do the martial artist, manuver master or master of many styles for my free archetype and then go for scaled fist as a regular archetype
but that's just me
Having a bloodline via eldritch heritage sounds like fun, though them I'd need to track bloodline powers, Exploits, and my school abilities lol. That's a lot.
Also, updated profile with a more in depth story that I think cane oUT alright.
I think I'm going to withdraw from this. I've got a little much on my plate now.
@gobo hoard: honestly if I were to go monk, I'd love to do the martial artist, manuver master or master of many styles for my free archetype and then go for scaled fist as a regular archetype
but that's just me
Ya, the current idea that I am feeling out is to create a Human Monk with just the Monk Vows as the base, and taking Master of Many Styles as my free archetype.
Then I will aim to "collect" many different fighting styles over time, and swapping between them each round in a kind of dance. He will only have the first level Style feats but he will have a few of them. This way I will have built in a fairly wide move pool with different options available to me instead of a bunch of bonuses stacking on top of each other. A large limiting factor to this will be my Swift actions, as just about EVERYTHING I would do will take a Swift :)Entering a Style (including on the first round) is a Swift action, changing or adding another Style is also a Swift, Ki powers are Swift actions as well, such as +1 attack or +4 Dodge, and also some feats such as Stunning Pin or Panther Style also take Swift actions, so they are exclusive to each other. However, this does mean I will have a rather graceful fighter utilizing a mirad of different blows.
I do have some really decent stats, coupled with a generally powerful class (Monk MoMS) so I figure I probably don't really need to boost my direct power too much :/ Focus on killing mooks creatively instead! XD
That and I also plan on taking some Monk Vows which can also be a form of limiter as well, but mostly I just really like the flavor of them :)
As for the Scaled Fist archetype, it is a pretty great one but not really what I am looking for :( That one bases everything off of Charisma but I am envisioning a more imposing specimen with a towering and unflinching will who is very self-disciplined and driven. He is single-minded and irresistible in his pursuit of his martial arts even going so far as to eschew many worldly pleasures as he sees them as enticing distractions that would dilute him off the "pure" path.
I also want him to have a pretty significant Ki focus and the Martial Artist completely removes that flavour.
However, I am finding that he is still very combat focused and I don't yet do much outside of that. So I want to change that more still and figure out something to make him more interesting and engaging outside of combat :)
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My character has developed into a charming young sorceress with a baleful legend hanging over her head and a seriously hot temper. She'll do her best to stay subtle and use her trickery and influence to get what she's after, but when things go south, she won't hesitate to burn bridges...along with whoever's standing on them.
Just wanted to touch back in and state that my Half-Orc Inquisitor of Asmodeus, Gareth Felbranche, is complete (lengthy story with some potential connections along with crunch). Happy to receive any feedback, and wishing everyone luck in this recruitment!
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@Gobo Horde:
I like the idea of a jack of all trades, and over 27 years of life he’s picked up a few skills, so Drack here can act as a party face (though I probably won’t put many ranks in diplomacy over the course of my career, starting off with one rank makes sense backstory wise) and he can act as our trap finder (though it will be a while until he can disarm magical traps) and can use craft (alchemy) to make poisons and bombs for the party and later he’ll also be able to craft armor (advanced armor training is great)
Monk is... less than good at out of combat utility, you might want to try Warpriest (sacred fist) then you can cast spells out of combat, even things like animate dead eventually
But it you really want to stick with monk and like ki, you might want to try serpent fire monk and/or the chakra initiate feat chain, that stuff is intense
@Dayen: Nice! Tricky characters are fun, and so are pyromaniacs :P
I have been too busy working on a potential campaign, enjoying the new God of War game, and dealing with work to properly work on a character. As such, I reluctantly withdraw my interest. Best of luck to everyone!
wow this turned into a wall of text, sorry about that:
That's a wall of text? My usual posts must rival that small wall of China then :p
Ya that Serpent Fire archetype looks really sweet and would probably be quite interesting to play, however, its core mechanic (Chakra) comes from the Occult ruleset which Jing restricted :(So probably can't use that...
However, I started looking at the UMonk and I realized that they get a Ki pool at 3rd level! The ability to get it a level earlier is significantly good considering the slow nature of PbP.
On top of that they can get some extra Ki abilities by 4th level, so I am going to look into that in the next little bit.
Hey guys, just a warning, it's roughly 12 hours till the deadline for your characters.
I'm looking more at backstory than at stats but I'd still want an idea of what you're attempting.
If all you can get in is a backstory that would work better for you than a weak backstory but completed Crunch. I look forwards to looking at all the entries tomorrow and hopefully sometime Tuesday I will be able to announce the party and give out the Discord for us to do some quick tidy up and start this epic journey!
Maria Rivers
Tiefling Antipaladin(dread vanguard, tyrant) 1;
Lawful Evil Medium
Init: 0Senses: -1
DEFENSE
AC: Touch: Flat-Footed:
HP: 12
Fort: 4Ref: 0Will: 1
OFFENSE
Speed: 30
Melee: 5
Ranged: 1
STATISTICS
Str 18Dex10 Con14 Int 10Wis 8Cha 16
Base Atk: 1CMB5 CMD 15
Skills: Bluff +7; Diplomacy +7; Disguise +7; Sense Motive +3; Sleight of Hand +1;
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Feats: Fiendish Facade; Power Attack;
Specials: ; Aura of Evil; Beacon of Evil; Code of Conduct; Detect Good; Smite Good;
Traits: killer,trustworthy, dueling to the death
Equipment:
DESCRIPTION
Maria was born into a family of traders living in Daveryn. While she was born with a tail, she was an otherwise flawless and healthy baby girl. With the addition of strict lessons to never under any circumstances let anyone see her tail, her early childhood was pretty normal.
But that changed when the dreams started, dreams that showed her taking actions, she knew were wrong according to the sermons of Mithra, but just little things that would benefit her a little thievery here, a little creatively worded truth to keep a bit of change as pocket money. At first she resisted like a good little girl, but in a moment of weakness she stole a piece of candy. Afterwards she was nervous about someone finding out, about Mithra punishing her like the priest told her he would. But nothing happened, thus she got bolder, went a little further each time. And the few times she was caught in her wrongdoings, she avoided punishment with natural charm and clever worded truth.
As she grew older the dreams showed her much more beyond petty crimes for personal gain, they showed her victories of will and steel under a red star against counless enemys, they showed victory in honorary single combat, victory through treachery but never herself breaking the letter of the world she had given.
With Maria growing her crimes grew as well, up to murder, even if she didn't intend to kill the girl she pushed down the stairs for having to much interest in a boy Maria liked. What lead to her trip to Branderscar was a simple mistakes, words spoken in anoyance and without thinking. There was a certain young noble, of no great importance, but a noble never the less, that took a liking to the tiefling girl, for she was quite charming and easy on the eye, and didn't accept no for an answer. While she might have considered it if he intended marriage, he was looking at best for a mistress and was well known for that. This she questioned his intentions and his honour and asked him to defend it with the blade if he so dared. Unfortunately he accepted to not lose face in front of his hangers-ons.
They met at dawn in an empty warehouse, stated their terms and faced each other with steel in hand. No one including Maria herself expect her to win, a girl who never wielded a sword against a boy who had received extensive training. But everything came different, when he lazily swung his sword at the tiefling, Maria with a surety of movement she only experienced in her dreams instead of raising her blade for a haphazard block spun to the side, like she dreamt doing so many times, her sword darting out towards the fops neck, decapitating him with a single swings, surprise forever frozen on his face. After panicking she managed to get everyone to agree to keep the whole thing quite, mostly by reminding everyone of the consequences their involvement would have for them and their families.
But someone broke when the body was found and the investigation started.
If possible I would like the selfish healing and greed of the Insinuator, if not I take variant multiclassing oracle.
Boom! Character done!
I am sorry, I just have not had the time to properly change the background. I am withdrawing.
Actually going to withdraw and focus on a different campaign. Best of luck to everyone. One day Ill end up in a great Way of the Wicked campaign but I dont think its in the cards for me right now.
Indeed, the wait. I will say, some of these characters have been really cool and well done, best of luck to everybody. And whoever does make it... give em hell!
Alright Guys, Gals, and everything not mentioned. I have read pretty much everything at this point. I'm gonna think about things for 24 hours and should post my decision at 11:59PM CST tomorrow at the latest.
It was interesting being on this side of the table looking over backstories in a way where I didn't compete against them but had to pick them and see how they might work together.
Party balance will be slightly considered but above all backstory and inspiration will be the deciding factors. I hope all of you don't do what I do every time there is a wait....and refresh this page every five minutes >.<
You know the drill Jing! Refreshing already, hehe. Take your time :)
This is the point when not having enough time to finish the character isn't so bad. I'm not stuck waiting to hear and I don't get really mad when somebody posts and it's not the GM.
I should know better not to check until the stated time.
Refresh, refresh. :)
:p I asked for backgrounds more than Crunch to be finished by midnight. I still consider you in the Running Philo. It may take me up to a week to work with all the players, make sure the crunch is good, and possibly slightly adjust backgrounds.
Jorda
Female gnome summoner (synthesist, master summoner) 1
LE Small humanoid (gnome)
Init +1; Senses low-light vision; Perception +9
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Defense
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AC 12, touch 12, flat-footed 11 (+1 Dex, +1 size)
hp 11 (1d8+3)
Fort +3, Ref +1, Will +5; +1 trait vs. divine spells
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Offense
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Speed 20 ft.
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +5)
. . 1/day—dancing lights, flare (DC 14), prestidigitation, produce flame
Summoner Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st; concentration +5)
. . 7/day—summon monster I
Summoner (Synthesist) Spells Known (CL 1st; concentration +5)
. . 1st (2/day)—mage armor, lesser rejuvenate eidolon[APG]
. . 0 (at will)—acid splash, detect magic, mage hand, message
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Statistics
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Str 10, Dex 13, Con 16, Int 16, Wis 16, Cha 19
Base Atk +0.75; CMB -1; CMD 10
Feats Arcane Strike, Extra Evolution[UM], Gruesome Butcher (Talingarde)
Traits diabolical dabbler, heresy, liar’s tongue
Skills Acrobatics +1 (-3 to jump), Bluff +9 (+13 to conceal your animosity toward Talingarde), Diplomacy +4 (+8 to conceal your animosity toward Talingarde), Knowledge (nobility) +7, Knowledge (planes) +7, Knowledge (religion) +7, Linguistics +7, Perception +9, Sense Motive +3 (+7 to determine if a creature is affiliated with Talingarde), Stealth +9, Use Magic Device +8; Racial Modifiers +2 Perception
Languages Common, Dwarven, Elven, Gnome, Goblin, Infernal, Sylvan
SQ fused eidolon, fused link, stalker
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Special Abilities
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Arcane Strike As a swift action, add +1 damage, +1 per 5 caster levels and your weapons are treated as magic for the purpose of overcoming damage reduction.
Fused Eidolon (12/12 HP) A synthesist summons the essence of a powerful outsider to meld with his own being. The synthesist wears the eidolon like translucent, living armor. The eidolon mimics all of the synthesist's movements, and the synthesist perceives through the eidolo
Fused Link (Su) Starting at 1st level, the synthesist forms a close bond with his eidolon. Whenever the temporary hit points from his eidolon would be reduced to 0, the summoner can, as a free action, sacrifice any number of his own hit points. Each hit point sacrif
Gruesome Butcher (Talingarde) +4 Sense Motive to determine, and +4 Bluff/Diplomacy to hide animosity toward Talingarde.
Low-Light Vision See twice as far as a human in dim light, distinguishing color and detail.
Stalker (1/day) Observe target 10 min, gain +1 to wep att/dam and various skills vs. them for 1 day.
Summoning Mastery I (9/day) (Sp) You can summon monsters as a spell like ability, maintaining 1 even when Eidolon is summoned.
Talingarde, land of the free. A land where everybody is equal under Mitra. That is why they spent their life savings to get on a boat and ride to their new home. To find that equal does not mean the same thing if you aren't human.
The honorable soldiers of Talingarde visited a tavern where a young gnome woman served. One of the few jobs she could get. Her daughter scurried around cleaning up. People didn't notice her often and she heard all of the talk of how the soldiers would violate her mother. How their enormous manhoods would break her. how far their catapults could launch her. How it was strictly one at a time or their lances would meet in the middle.
It was not a surprise to young Jorda when her mother was found dead, bleeding from her nethers. It seems that they did break her. Her body was covered with the scent of frankincense and cinnamon, a familiar scent from the captain of the guards. A young baker with a little orcish blood was hanged for the crime.
She couldn't fight. A tiny gnome girl against professional soldiers? Hah. But she couldn't leave it alone. The church of Mitra advised one to forgive one's enemies, even as they blessed crusades of soldiers. She would need a new church.
Asmodeus seeks those who are clever and resourceful. He leaves seeds of knowledge for those who need it. She sought out power and found a lord she could believe in. It was clear that worshipping Asmodeus meant devoting your soul to him. He would use you as he needed and sacrifice you. But if you served his interests well, he would give you power. Talingarde worshipped Mitra, so Asmodeus had an interest in fighting Talingarde.
Jorda read the texts and gained power. At first, wild dogs with red eyes attacked the soldiers. Guardsmen began dying, found in pools of blood and assaulted in the most shameful way. The began to patrol in groups, and that prevented attacks for a while. Things calmed down and they relaxed. Captain Aldric stood down the heightened alert and things went back to normal.
But in one alley, a fiend lurked. She had learned to cloak herself in fiendish form. The captain was skilled, and had armor and weapons. So she waited. The next girl he assaulted was half-elven. and it was only after he unbuckled his armor that the devil struck. The captain fought, but the sharp claws drew out his lifeblood. The girl ran. She was braver than Jorda expected as she brought forces from the church to take down the beast that had saved her. They wouldn't listen as she told who the real beast was. The lass would not speak ill of the dead.
Talingarde protected their own, and Captain Aldric was given a funeral with full honors for dying facing a fiend. Jorda got a brand and chains that kept her from summoning.
master summoner, extra evolution, gruesome butcher
skills=linguistics 1, kn: nobles 1
What's this? I'm a little ahead of my deadline for announcing?
>.> I had a bit more down time as I spent the day grilling instead of doing chores! The whether was too nice, so I had a lot of time for contemplation.
I have decided that the lucky few prisoners who were not executed the night before are....
Lord Foul II's Drack the Nagaji Fighter, charged with Desertion and sentenced to Death by Hanging.
Timeskeeper's Ileosa the Human Inquisitor of Asmodeus, charged with High Treason and sentenced to Death by Drawn and Quartering
John G's Ella the Changeling Bloodrager, charged with Attempted murder and sentenced to Death by Beheading
Frightmare's Vriskella the Tiefling Bard, charged with Consorting with Dark Powers and sentenced to Death by Burning
Lobster's Carys the Tiefling Cleric of Asmodeus, charged with Blasphemy and sentenced to Death by Burning
KatGrey's Senara the Human Summoner, charged with Consorting with Dark Powers and sentenced to Death by Burning.
I took a very small amount into consideration party balance, racial diversity, and crunch but these six had backstories that I felt gave good hooks to try and add in a tiny bit of my own content to the game as well as being just amazing reads.
I didn't feel there was a single entry that I didn't enjoy reading and looking over, and I wish I could take all of you but I needed to narrow it down somehow and it fell in the end to some minor details that I looked at and felt would benefit the story and the group by including.
Please those of you selected, click the link and join my discord server for the game and once we go over a few things, hopefully we'll get started at the latest by next week >.<.
Best of luck to all to all selected. May the Prince of Lies grant your evil endeavors foul yet successful fortune!
@Jing, should any spots open up, I hope you will consider me!
Avenge our deaths for Asmodeus!
Here is my tentative submission. Scarred Scaled Fist UnMonk of Asmodeus. Found guilty of Heresy when he was discovered practicing unholy rituals in his monastery. Character sheet is on Myth-weavers. I'll attempt to port it over to a more Paizo compatible form in the next few days.
Is this recruiting again?
Is this recruiting again?
Yup, the information about it can be found right here!
Yes we are recruiting again, and please post all further things in the latest recruitment post I made that Skelatox was kind enough to link!