So, how are we gonna work Zair in there? And when, exactly?
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Righto, I've been thinking about that. When you go to do the graveyard thing, he can be at the new temple. When you go to investigate, he can go along for the ride as Zantus wants to see what he's like and whether he can be trusted in town.
That gives him a segue to the group, and good reason for him to go along for a while, to prove his worth to town despite his beliefs/convictions. I'll have to read up on Akachek as a god to make sure there's no direct clash or hatred between the faiths in town. Zantus is head priest, and he's more a redeemer type than a condemner. AS such he'd be all for having the man in town if he can be trusted. Then he's going to try and convert him, or at least discuss his ideas fairly robustly.
The more i think on it, I'm not even sure if people in sandpoint would be overly familiar with his god. If that's the case then there's a better than average chance he'll get treated the same as everyone else, except maybe his heritage. You're in for a surprise there methinks (an AP thing that I don't want to spoil for you). Hehe.
How does that sound?
Also, I've had a change of heart of the Evil thing. You wrote a good argument for the alignment, and there is precedent for angel blooded characters being evil, as there is for devil and demon blooded for being good. Let's roll with it and see how it works out.
Cheers
PS. I keep popping in here as distraction from my marking. It's good for the soul.
Sounds good. I'll try to come up with a more concrete background and more specific motivations for him as I solidify the build, at which point I'll make a new alias and post the character sheet in the profile just like Crokus' character sheet is.
As far as Achaekek goes, he doesn't have very many strict tenets really.
Basically while he is a god of assassins (and an assassin of demigods) he's not really a god of death or murder or anything like that. According to the Pathfinder wiki entry he's the middle ground between Calistria (goddess of revenge) and Norgorber (god of murder), which I take to mean that while killing for a purpose is fine, even if that purpose is money, wanton murder is NOT.
Other than that, this guy will be following the basic tenets of the Red Mantis Assassins as well, which basically consist of "Don't kill rightful monarchs", and that same philosophy that debts can be paid through means other than monetary (i.e. Bartering for favors is perfectly acceptable).
Worship of Achaekek is a very loose sort of worship, less of a memorization of catechisms and more of a living up to the god's methods and mannerisms: Ruthlessness, implacability, deadliness...but all tempered by loyalty to the rightful rulers and presumably to anyone they may ally with.
This also reminds me, I need to get a holy symbol.
Edit: I kinda want to go with something like devotion to the utter perfection of his god and so on. The will of Achaekek permeating every aspect of his being and so forth.
I wanted a tattoo holy symbol done over his eye, but they're too expensive ATM (100 gold), so I was thinking that using Brand at the start of each day to do the same thing and then using the Treat Deadly Wounds aspect of Heal to restore the point of damage would be a neat way to do it.
Would you allow me to Take 20 on that check, by any chance?
Also, there are specific rules for torture from Bastion Press apparently, on the SRD. Would we be using those for interrogations or just a "Inflict damage, make an Intimidate check" sort of thing?
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I'd be going the second option. However, occasionally you'll need to make heal checks to ensure your questioning methods aren't becoming too lethal.
I can see your option for the god working ok. Also, give him the tattoo, rather than the branding option. We can write off the cost later. Is this something that has rules which means you use it instead of a normal holy symbol? If so, please point them out so I can read them. If its official Paizo, then we're good. If its third party then no at this stage.
Cheers.
Yes, it's basically a regular Holy symbol but in tattoo form. It must remain visible and not defaced to be used for Channel Energy and such-like for Clerics, but I'm not sure if it has any use for Inquisitors.
Holy Symbol, Tattoo In some religions, you are allowed to tattoo or brand your deity's holy symbol onto your skin (typically the palm, back of the hand, or forearm) in a special ceremony. Thereafter, it functions like an actual holy symbol of your faith, and you may use it as a divine focus for spellcasting, channeling energy, and so on. The tattoo must be fully visible to use it in this way (it cannot be covered with a glove, gauntlet, or any other material). The listed price includes the cost of a simple brand or non-fading black tattoo; add appropriate tattoo costs if you want something more elaborate. Specifically damaging or erasing the tattoo or brand negates its use as an actual holy symbol. Price 100 gp; Weight —
It was added in Ultimate Equipment. I quite like the idea of it.
So, Holy Symbol tattoo of something close to this over his right eye. In red ink if that's not considered "something more elaborate" simple black if not.
I get this neat image of the mantis claws in the middle (where they're clasped together) being shifted apart in such a way that the top claw is over his eye (where the eyebrow would be, thereabouts, maybe a bit lower) and the bottom runs under it so his eyes are framed by the symbol.
Thanks Wrath. =)
Oh, also, does anyone have good suggestion for Feats? I took Skill Focus because I had NO clue about what else I could take. I wanted to go for the Dazzling Display chain but I need Weapon Focus for that.
Yep. I'm proficient since it's the Favored Weapon of Achaekek.
And I was thinking II as well but wasn't sure. I suppose my Intimidate will already get quite high enough when Stern Gaze starts paying out some.
It's really too bad Weapon Focus needs BaB +1. Kinda sucks I won't even get the first Feat in the chain I wanna go for until 5th. But ah well, gives me time to think it over I suppose.
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@Wrath - Indeed there is precedent. :)
As to feats, there are a lot of limits because of the BaB +1 requirement (another advantage for martial) I would look at Judgement Surge for one, but I also might lower Con and take Toughness as that low charisma could burn you later playing an evil character.
Is the shield for now or forever? Also, are you looking at switch hitting? If so get Point Blank out of the way now.
I was thinking of keeping the shield, though if you think there might be a better way to go about it I'm open to suggestions. I might drop the Dazzling Display thing in favor of some of the shield Feats.
As for the Cha thing, I'd have to lower some of my other stats too to raise it above 8. Probably Int and I already had a hard ENOUGH time getting all the skills I wanted. I took the Conversion Inquisition to explain a bit why he wasn't an obnoxious douche or clueless about social mores like Crokus is, he uses his Wisdom of the world for that.
I still haven't decided on whether I am truly going to try and be a switch hitter or not. I suppose it would definitely help since we don't have any ranged characters.
Eh, I'll go with that. I won't be able to afford a longbow until next level though. It'd be cool to use crossbows along with my sword (hand crossbows especially) but I hear they're very hard to make good.
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Inquisitors tend to be relatively feat starved, so mixing the shield feats makes that tough.
When you get bane later, you are really going to be focusing on one weapon at a time, so the TWF with a shield is kind of meh. On the upside, you aren't as beholden to strength for damage, either way.
Crossbows can be challenging because of the reloading issues and that you can't add your Str to attack, but on the other hand for inquisitors you are getting most of your bonuses from judgement and bane anyway, and you can get a reloading crossbow.
Are you married to Achaekek as a concept, or is just for the mechanics? The sawtooth blade isn't actually that awesome a weapon mechanically.
Which domain were you taking?
Concept, not mechanics. If you know of a good god that shares the same sort of theme but better mechanics I'm all ears.
And I grabbed the Conversion Inquisition for Intimidate and because none of the other Inquisitions looked very good besides Anger.
Oh, and a shared room is fine, yeah.
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ok selling your gear.
Everything has a base sell value of 50% as usual.
You currently have good rep in town, however, so if you can make a DC15 diplomacy you can up that to 60% for items. This is an arbitrary DC, and is really only availble because the merchants feel well disposed towards you. Normally this isn't going to happen for selling stuff since all merchants love profit (hehe).
I'll list the folks that are likely to buy from you later on. Just some background for you to note. I usually run a mechaninc for keeping tabs on who buys from you and how well they deal with you, but not sure if I'll do that this game. It can make the game more personal and rich, but it takes more time on my end too. Something I'm currently short on.
Back to the fmaily now, then some more marking, cos I can never get enough of that.
Cheers
Just for shats and gaggles, here's a Diplomacy check.
Positive numbers! Sweet.
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Concept, not mechanics. If you know of a good god that shares the same sort of theme but better mechanics I'm all ears.
And I grabbed the Conversion Inquisition for Intimidate and because none of the other Inquisitions looked very good besides Anger.
Oh, and a shared room is fine, yeah.
I'm not a fan of the inquisitions, but the domains can pretty great. Particularly domain like Travel.
As to gods, your concept as I understand it is someone who wants information from people, regardless of morality.
That could be almost any god (well any neutral or evil good) so, to me, it is more about how you envision the intent. Achaekek, again to me, is more servant assassin of the gods, where you don't seem to be as much as an assassin as an investigator.
Irori is knowledge, but I don't think that fits your theme.
Norgorber is the god of secrets, which actually does fit your theme except he is also the god of spies, which is part of what you seem to want to root out.
Abadar could actually work well, as he is, to me, the god of Civilization and keeping the peace, so having someone lawful evil to do the dirty work to maintain balance would be right up his alley. You could be an investigator (or at first level an investigator in training) who does what is needed to get things done.
Plus, you get access to the travel domain, which means +10 to movement and at 8th Dimension hop.
Last you could look at Zon-Kuthon, since you like torture and he is the god of pain and sadism. But you'll likely need to keep that hidden and pretend to be a god of someone else (like Abadar)
I looked at both Norgorber and Zon-Kuthon and thought they were neat flavor-wise, but even more underwhelming mechanically. And having a cool death's head tattoo on my face as a holy symbol would get me killed, too. =(
Abadar could be good I suppose, but Intimidate definitely becomes harder without Conversion, since I kinda like the stat arrangement I have currently.
I was contemplating a swap to Cleric (or Abadar?) instead so I could maybe snag Conversion Inquisition plus Travel domain and maybe swap to Samsaran so I could snag the Inquisitor spells like Interrogation and such, since I already wasn't exactly decked out to be a combat monster. I think I actually might like that a bit more, though I may just stay with Aasimar because I still like the race a lot.
Be more of a spell-focused interrogator instead of a physical focused one.
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I would like to get a dog...preferably a largish, healthy one...I want it to survive, and guard me a little. Frankly, I'm not the combat sort of bard...but ultimately, once we've leveled a couple of times, I just want it for guarding horses...equipment left behind...what have you...and just be a companion in general. I'll drop a point into Handle Animal at 2nd...
I get the feeling Mr Foxglove might know where to find them...
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I looked at both Norgorber and Zon-Kuthon and thought they were neat flavor-wise, but even more underwhelming mechanically. And having a cool death's head tattoo on my face as a holy symbol would get me killed, too. =(
Abadar could be good I suppose, but Intimidate definitely becomes harder without Conversion, since I kinda like the stat arrangement I have currently.
I was contemplating a swap to Cleric (or Abadar?) instead so I could maybe snag Conversion Inquisition plus Travel domain and maybe swap to Samsaran so I could snag the Inquisitor spells like Interrogation and such, since I already wasn't exactly decked out to be a combat monster. I think I actually might like that a bit more, though I may just stay with Aasimar because I still like the race a lot.
Be more of a spell-focused interrogator instead of a physical focused one.
Yes and no. You already add half your inquisitor level, and it is a class skill. Do that an you start off pretty damn intimidating.
Go tiefling and you can have this . Do that an you start off fairly intimidating.
Hrm. The Oni-Spawn variant might be right up my alley actually, though having another 5 Cha character...
Hm, then again it's balanced out by his skills in interrogation and such too, and nobody likes Tieflings or torturers anyway.
If Travel Domain is still what you suggest, then I was thinking either being Abadar's "enforcer" or a worshiper of Barbatos would be good.
I'm actually leaning closer towards Abadar just because it fits the flavor of the Inquisitor more, i.e. someone who breaks the rules to allow for the betterment of his god and religion as a whole.
Yeah, I think I'll do that. Along with taking Prehensile Tail (...I'm not a Sorcerer, I dun need your stinkin' Sorcerer boost!) and Scaled Skin (I like scales.)
Now I need to make a coherent backstory for the guy.
Eh, it's cool. I'll make up for it by making something Cha focused if one of them dies. Like a Paladin or Sorcerer or summat.
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Ok, I posted for Zair's intro when you're ready. I'm not sure what your final take on him is going to be, so i left it specifically vague. The glow under the hood was for his eyes, in case you went the otsider bloodline. Alternatively it can be his religious symbol tattoo perhaps.
I have Zantus somewhat annoyed at him at the moment, mostly based on your initial concept and religion. How that plays out is up to your final choices I guess.
On XP - I'll assign you levels as needed, rather than tracking xp. I find xp tedious to be honest. It's certainly less important now it isnt used as a resource for crafting or spell casting. Also, the AP has very good guidelines for what levels you should attain and when, so I'll follow those at this point.
Raimos - Dogs are readily available. You can buy one from almost anywhere in this place. However combat trained dogs aren't so common. There is a place known as the Goblin Smash Stables that is run by an old goblin hunter. He trains wolfhounds for hunting and killing goblins in the area, though he himself has retired. You could try there, but the cost is higher than a normal dog, since it's been combat trained.
Cheers
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1 x whip for a small humanoid. Good quallity so can be sold
- 1 x studded leather for small humanoid. Sellable, but only just.
- 1 x master work horse chopper. Counts as masterwork longsword for a small humanoid. Easily sellable.
If one of you has time, could you please work out the gold from selling the above items at 60% of value?
The horsechopper is quite a good sell obviously. If no one has time, I'll work it out this weekend and post the value for you to divide amongst the three of you.
Cheers.
I decided to stop waffling around and just went (mostly) with my original idea. Sword and Board, Conversion Inquisition, but Tiefling (Oni Spawn). Achaekek tattoo on his face, fights with a Saber.
The basic idea behind him is that he's extremely proud of his unconventional worship, no matter who might see it as deranged, thus he proudly displays it on his face. He's been trained all his life (sometimes as the torturer, sometimes as the tortured) to to track down the enemies of his god and extract their secrets from them. However, once he reached adulthood he decided that the Mantis were no true worshipers of his lord and he left the island and never returned. After such, he started traveling, hoping to find converts and potential enemies of his god wherever he went, and he decided that the best way to do so was to offer his services to as many people as possible and meet as many people as he could in order to gauge their willingness to serve and worship.
He was actually raised in the Crimson Citadel after some Mantis Assassins found him as a child and took him in due to his portentous appearance.
He is somewhat insectoid in nature, having a striking crimson carapace (his "scales" for that ability) closely molded to his body as to be almost unnoticeable except around his forearms and legs, with the aforementioned glowing orange eyes, slightly changed mantis Holy Symbol, and silvery metallic hair. While mostly humanoid in other ways he does have a long, thin tail with a (non-functional/poisonous) stinger attached to the end.
Personality wise, he's very enthusiastic about his work, and completely unconcerned with the morality of his actions. While he doesn't hurt those he sees as innocents, anyone he considers an enemy of his lord he will attempt to capture, interrogate (to see if they're working alone, or with others) and coldly eliminate them. Otherwise, he gets along well with pretty much everyone, or he tries to since his upbringing and appearance make it quite hard for him to start up conversations with anyone, even if they don't know the truth.
I think he should be a lot of fun.
Oh, also, gold:
Whip: 6 silver
Studded Leather: 15 gold
Horse Chopper: 186 gold
Gotcha.
And yeah, I guess I do have a thing for the character that could easily incite the "Grab the torches and pitchforks!" reaction through appearance. My last game for the longest time was limited to Core races only, so I only played Human and Half-Orc (both Monks, I retired the Half-Orc because of a combination of too spread out stat rolls and bad Feat options making him worse at everything than everyone at all times.), then I started my own game, so the one "character" I have there is basically there as a healbot/Tip dispenser (my players are really reluctant to do anything if not prompted and I can't break them of it).
Though my one other character I played while rebuilding the Human Monk (which I've hoped to bring back in for the past 2 months, but have been unable to because of circumstances delaying the game for that long) was a Rakshasa-Spawn Tiefling, he isn't exactly a pariah because his Cha was through the roof and he's kooky enough to be lovable. The fact that he just looks like a big fuzzy lion man doesn't hurt matters either.
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So...67 gold and 2 silver, just split 3 ways. Not a bad haul... :)
Is that going to be standard practice, or shall we count off magic item values? I've done it both ways...even treasure shares and a round-robin pick...or counting for value.
Oh...and...any luck on finding a dog that morning, or will it have to wait?
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With your earlier diplomacy, yes, there is a dog available. It will take the guy a week to get him to respond to your commands though, and that will mean an hour a day with you as well. After that, you'll have yourself a combat trained dog, if you can afford it.
If you just want a dog, then you can buy one immediately. Chances are it will just run away in combat though, unless you're willing and able to train it yourself.
A normal dog is good for sensing danger and guarding areas though. They just don't go into combat without training really. They'll defend themselves though.
edit - a small combat trained dog costs 25 gold, but has the stats of a small dog from the beastiary. Not exactly tough.
a combat trained riding dog costs 120gold and is medium, and has stats like that in the riding dog section of bestiary.
I'd advise going the riding dog option. It's a bigger animal, better trained and tough enough to survive combat. Of course, it costs alot more than you probably have at the moment.
You could try bartering with the guy to try and buy on spec and pay him as you earn more. Its very possible you could do this given your dimplomacy ability.
Cheers
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I just realized I initiated a conversation with myself.
This feels weird.
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Ok...well, I don't have it all, right now...I'll propose 50% down and the rest...er...soon? :)
Diplomacy1d20+8
Yep, he's down for that. It will still be a week of training of you and the dog to get to know each other. Id make it less if you had handle animal. You can drop this down to two days of intense training if you get the time to do that. That's two days where you do nothing but train with the dog. That'll cost another 5 gold, to account for the trainers time.
You'll have to account for feeding him too. We'll cover that when you actually collect him.
Cheers
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Wrath -
I guess you've been busy for a couple of days...well, my turn is coming up. I have some craziness coming...hopefully, I'll be able to get on and post, but just in case I can't for a little while here...I have 14 rounds of Bardic Performance for +1 Inspire Courage...and I'll be using the bow when I need to...if I hear chanting, I'll try countersong...and of course, any time the Daze looks handy, if I'm not inspiring, I'll use it.
If none of those apply, I'm not real stealthy, but I try. :p
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Ok, there are two skeletons.
The vault is 20 feet square with a double set of doors.
One door (left hand side) is lying wide open.
The right hand door is closed and still bolted closed.
Skeltons are currently 10 feet inside the room. Their first move will be to move and engage Crokus if they get to go first.
Crokus is in the doorway.
Everyone else is in a small group 5 feet behind him. All have line of site to the skeltons at the moment.
That will change if tehy move first.
Please post initiatives. If you beat the 23 my skeles got, please feel free to post your actions.
If not I'll post in the morning for the skeles and we'll go from there.
I may need to NPC Raimos, but Eldon gave me some really good actions for the bard if he is away.
Cheers
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Ok, both skeletons are in combat, so ranged attacks are at -4 to avoid hitting Crokus.
Skeleton 2 is actually behind the cover of the closed door as well. This means it gets a +4 to its armour for cover. Hitting that one is going to be hard.
The second door can be opened easily by a standard action to unbolt the top and bottom and swing it open. It will provoke from skeleton one though, assuming its still standing when this action occurs.
Crokus, Zair then Ira I believe for intiatives. Post whenever you can, I'll apply your actions in initiative order and adjust as needed.
Dont forget your +1's for Inspire Courage from Raimos.
Cheers
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If crokus five foot steps into the room, it will give all three combatants a clear strike at the last skeleton. Other wise, Crokus and Zair have unobstructed attacks. Ira has to attack across the corner provided by the door edge. He and the skele will have cover vs each other.
I believe at least one of those claws struck you Crokus, heheh.
Additionally, I bough the PDF of Ultimate Campaign. If you guys have it and want to do some of the down time stuff mentioned in there, I'm all for it. It would be nice for me to try out the rules since that's generally how I have to learn something like that.
Cheers
Edit - Don't forget that Raimos is still inspiring courage.
Owwwwwwwwwwwww!
Also, I had planned on buying UCamp at some point too. It looked inteldasting.
Edit: This is something I like to do with some characters, especially the ones that are half or pure blooded "monster races" like Orcs and Half-Orcs. Basically from a lot of enemies we fight I'll be taking some sort of trophy to string onto this necklace (Also why I like the Pathfinder's Kit. It comes with string. :)).
I find it makes for a nice log of memorable encounters after a while, and the first "near death" (sort of) experience counts I think.
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<sigh>Just typed a huge post then it got eaten and i stupidly forgot to copy it first.
Ok - This section is basically giving you two days downtime in sandpoint.
I want you all to type me something in character about how you spend that time. Maybe a montage etc.
Crokus - you made friends with the local half orcs. They work hard and play hard, but are generally loyal to their friends. Feel free to create a few NPC names and personalities for these guys and we can work them into the game. They have a boss who is mentioned in the setting. Check the linked page to my DM avatar for that info, as i cant rememner it off the top of my head.
Zair - is a blank book really. He has no real connections to town, so see what you can come up with mate.
Eldon - youre training with your new dog. Pluse you have time at the playhouse if you want. Plus you have a bolssoming relationship with Ameiko. She's going to play hard to get though. Lots of innuendo and teasing, but no action yet. Have fun with all of that my bardic friend.
Ira - the house of the blue stone is the one you saw in the festival. Use the the info from teh gazeteer in the AP that you have and create something from there. The girl who runs it could be a future love interest, a friend and trainer or even a potential foil if that's how you want to play it.
Guys, this is your chance to let your creative story telling take over. Show me what you got.
I'll run the boar hunt stuff on Sunday my time. Its my B'day tomorrow so I suspect I'll be busy doing stuff with that.
cheers
Would that be Jesk "Cracktooth" Berinni, who runs the tavern?
Also, Happy Birthday!