hallowsinder's Untitled Campaign

Game Master hallowsinder

Emperor Chreos, everlasting divinity, has decreed that he intends to ascend to the stars, and will leave one of his progeny atop the throne. In his wisdom, he has created a contest of war to decide his heir upon this world, so that the new ruler will be unchallenged.

You are one of those sired by Emperor Chreos, a child of war whose divine blood empowered you beyond mortals. Sent to battle with a idle wave, you have seen naught but the back of your father. Victorious, you have an elite troop of warriors who have served you in the harshest fields of battle till peace was earned by your might. Now Valdis is to be fought over one last time...

Character Creation- Crunch

Level Five, Three-Class Gestalt, bonus feats at levels 2 and 4.

Stats are 20 point buy, but stats start at 14 instead of 10 (so getting to 16 is 2 points, 18 is 5, so on.)

Races are anything that can be flavored as a human-something hybrid. The something does not have to be another "normal" Pathfinder race. However, everyone is functionally immortal as far as age goes.

Health is maximum per each hit die, and your total bonus health from feats/favored class bonus/toughness is multiplied by 1.5, round up.

Wealth per level is as normal, with a free Cape of Resistance +3 that can be put on any item slot.

You will receive an escort of warriors, 20 of them, built as normal characters with a Elite NPC array, 2 levels, martial type classes only, and you can only have 3 "variations". Their budget is 500 gold of mundane equipment (no masterwork or alchemical or magical), and a lieutenant, built as a level 4 two-class gestalt character with a 3000 gold budget and a 20 point buy (normal starting stats).

Character Creation- Fluff

Must Know: Why are you fighting? Why do you want the empire? If I don't know this, I don't know why you're here. :P

Like to See: Where are you from? Where have you conquered? A little bit of worldbuilding goes a long way towards being a co-creator rather than a passive player.

Finally, I might suggest PMing your applications, due to the PvP nature of the starting act.

Stats are 20 point buy, but stats start at 14 instead of 10 (so getting to 16 is 2 points, 18 is 5, so on.)

So basically a free + 4 in all ability scores (kinda like the Advanced template)?

Is this Golarion setting or a homebrew? If the latter, more detailed information on the setting would be quite helpful.

Also, are evil characters acceptable?

This is quite interesting

Any traits or Flaws?

Archetypes allowed

What classes can you use and can't?

Anything more of the setting we can have like deities for people going into some divine classes.

You can be any race like Aasimar, tiefling, oread, dhampir and any of the "human-like" races basically then? (just checking I got this right)

Dot

~~ Gars Darklover ~~

Indeed. Very similar to Advanced without the Nat AC.

~~ Arachnofiend ~~

Evil? Yes.

~~ Warlord ~~

Aasimar and Tiefling I would work with you to do a little tweaking in order to move to a more acceptable power level. But otherwise yes, any "human like" race is perfectly fine. However, it's slightly more flexible than that. A dwarf, could be reflavored as a human - stocky short race hybrid. I've got a fair bit of leeway for you.

Traits- You may take the additional traits feat, but you do not get any for free.

Flaws- I'll only give you a trait for a flaw, if in my estimation, the flaw represents a noticeable penalty to your build. There are too many flaws that would simply never come up with the right build choices.

Archetypes are judged case by case, but usually the answer will be yes. I'm already giving a lot of power out though, and wouldn't allow for example, Mutagen Warrior.

~~ Answers to PM questions that are not related to their characters directly ~~

When working out my HP do I use all 3 dice every level or just highest?: Just the highest.

NPC Escort Health: The lieutenant gets a maxed first hit die, then half rounded up for each hit die after that (a 4d6 lieutenant gets 18 HP base). The 20 get the average (a 2d8 minion would get 9 HP from that 2d8). They do not get the bonus health multiplier players do.

You mentioned the PVP nature of the "opening act" - does this mean that you intend to have the players join up later on, or that it will be a fully PVP game?: If the players show interest in the world and advancing the plot beyond a simple PvP brawl to determine a winner, I have plans in place for accommodating and rewarding such depth.

~~THE SETTING ~~

Ok, so, this is a homebrew setting. That said, it is a veeery, veeery, sparse one. You can make up wherever you want to be from, you can make up whatever min maxed god you want to worship.

I'll divulge a few more details I know about the setting-
Your HP is not a metaphorical "I can dodge attacks until this meter runs out and I am tired." You are divine beings who can be stabbed through the lung in a sneak attack, and if it doesn't drop your HP below 0, your might shrugs it off.
The conquest happened across about 40 years. Even if you were sired before Emperor Chreos began his conquest in earnest, you'd be about 50 years at maximum age, probably younger.

That's all I've really got set in stone other than the intro blurb. I don't even have the name of a single country, or continent, or diety yet. And, if you come up with a cool enough reason, I'm totally willing to modify those things. I've already come up with a few possible exceptions. But I'm not going to tell you, becaaaausee...

Creating the world in which you come from is part of the test for character creation in this game.

In any PvP enabled, high freedom environment I see players dropped into, the top player killer is not OP classes. It's reactive players. Players who have no idea how to add their own material and do their own thing. When you have six players with finely crafted statblocks, and loving hooks into existing material, all sitting in proverbial closets because they're all waiting for the DM to post something to react to, rather than going out there and making their own thing happen. Then, when everyone gets bored of sitting in their closets, they leave.

I'm doing this in an effort to make that NOT happen. We'll see whether it works.

I'm dotting this, and will throw something together over the next few days. Do you have an application cut off date?

I haven't decided on one yet. Don't worry, you have pleeenty of time.

I'll set the due date as two weeks after I have enough applications to make a go at it.

You should take "Power Behind The Throne" into consideration as well.

If someone wishes to make a character that is/seeks to be the "Power Behind The Throne" they have only need to write it up and send it my way.

Dot for interest

Dot

Just came off a way of the wicked gestalt application. Just need to do a refluff and add a third class, and I'll have something for ya.

3pp allowed? Specifically path of war.

Sure, but one path of war class is all three of your classes.

Question about the initial battle, if that is how it will begin. What kind of battlefield are we looking at? Arena, plains, tower; trying to figure what retinue to bring to this knife fight. Making mine Mongols at the moment.

Sure, but one path of war class is all three of your classes.

A simple "no" would have sufficed if you're unfamiliar with the material.

I'm honestly considering the pure benevolent conquerer route here. Who sees this fight as a disgusting display of callousness meant to weaken brothers and sisters for fear of their power.

TarkXT, I am quite familiar with the material. The number of GMs I have made cry with said material is three.

Boss Zog, the force you should bring is a flexible one. The Emperor has not made the exact rules of the contest known.

TarkXT, I am quite familiar with the material. The number of GMs I have made cry with said material is three.

That's not really good reasoning given the reign of terror a combo of 3 paizo classes can inflict. No stalker, warder, or warlord could match the shenanigans I could pull in this with a combo that has all spells, full bab, all good saves and features to back them up.

In any case this isn:'t for me. I appreciate the ambition here and would otherwise be intrigued enough to continue on an easy no on the basis of keeping it easier for you but in my experience this sort of game dies incredibly fast.

As you will, have fun!

Thanks for answering the questions, will not pick some crazy archetypes.

Got some ideas. How would age categories work with the "effectively immortal" thing? This seems like a campaign where it would be more fun to play someone with an advanced age category, if that makes sense (I'm tentatively thinking a ranger or gunslinger/warpriest/sorcerer who enjoys personally sniping in battle, or a wizard/gunslinger/alchemist who wants to develop the world through technology)

Also, TarkX—I don't think that's a condemnation of Path of War. Those classes are actually just as powerful as a regular gestalt x2 path (or x3 if you optimize it).

@GM: Do animal-human hybrids like Vanara or Tengu count as "half-human"?

If you provide the backstory of the compatible race that provides the other half, certainly.

As for your premise there Thunderbeard, I would advise you that I have said there are exceptions to even the set in stone rules if you come up with an entertainingly strong reasoning. There's certainly a way to be an advanced age category.

~Mainly, I wanted to be absolutely sure that no one could merge a Stalker's insane crit range with a full BaB class.

All right, I've got about half of my idea done. ^^ So... can we take a normal human at all, or would it need to be a non-human flavored as one?

What about templates? Replace class levels, or...?

Humans are fine. Expected, even.

Templates are by permission, send me a PM about the one you have in mind.

Ooh, gtk. So you mentioned collaborative world building-how would cosmology work? If I'm interested in a character who has escaped from or spent some time in hell or another underworld, does that make sense?

Second-are our troops all human? I've got some ideas involving an army of half-or s or something similar

And finally-do we lose our immortality if we don't win, or is there incentive to tteam up if you think you'll lose to get a better position in the winner s court?

hm, I see in my mind already something neat.

Fighter/Barbarian/Inquisitor

A mighty warrior general, a son of Emperor Chreos, conquesting and turning the foreing lands under the control of his father. War, blood and death follows him, as he with a grip of an iron controls the subjugated ones to follow the rules and religion of the hole empire.

Has a dream to succeed his father and take the throne for himself: learned through conquest that there is no such thing as peace, only eternal war against other races (Areth is a bit racist) and only through iron rule can one man control everyone

So the point buy on stats are still 1 for 1 right so all start at a 14 going to a 16 is 2 points. Did you mean going to an 18 is 4 points? Can you go above an 18?

Was thinking Mighty Godling / I'm still working on the other 2, was wondering if Mighty Godling would be ok. Thanks.

The offspring of an Angel and the God king. Gilantus is the true heir because of his divine blood he is truly destined to rise to god hood and as the ruler of Valdis

Will crafting items be permitted with the feats?

~~Thunderbeard.~~

It'll make sense if you make it make sense. You'd need How You Got There, What You Found There, and How You Got Out.

We have clinical immortality, not "can't be stabbed" immortality. Depends on the mercy of your opponent, which so far, is not likely. As of yet, the rules of the competition are unknown (IC. I know what they're gonna be, and the Emperor does too.)

Your troops are likely recruited from the places you were most known for conquering/subjugating/whatnot. But, exceptions happen. Certainly, other races can be part of your forces, even if they aren't half human.

~~Grovo~~

Very nice. Also, I think that personality concept is so far the nicest person submission I've received so far. :P One of the PM drop outs was going to be a graveknight.

~~Ashe~~

Mighty Godling is a mightily powerful class when optimized properly. Depending on whether you intend on wringing power out of it or just taking a few flavor abilities, it may count as two or more of your Gestalt classes if you heavily lean towards the power.

Here is the stat table.

Score Points
11 –4
12 –2
13 –1
14 0
15 1
16 2
17 3
18 5
19 7
20 10
21 13
22 17

Item Crafting feats will be allowed, but taking one will grant you 25% bonus money, nonstacking.
A free Brew Potions/Scribe Scroll will not give you said 25% bonus money. But will help provide a good explanation if you decided to bring nothing but scrolls and potions.

Cool. I will work up the build and send you a PM. If you give it the ok I will work on fluff, or work to change it.

So are you saying if we take a craft feat we get an extra 2625gp to start? or we have 2625gp less from the 10500 starting wealth?

It would mean your budget is 13125.

And, for balance, anyone could also take a "Spoils of Conquest" feat to get that same amount of money even if not a spellcaster. Non-stacking, of course.

and on HP lets say I get d12 so 60 for 5th level. Is it say 18 con for 20+FCB+Toughness so 30 is it only the 30 that become 45 or is it the total 90 that becomes 135 Thanks.

4x5+1x5+1x5 = 30, x1.5 = 45, so 45 bonus health onto the 60 from hit dice.

Presenting Areth Stormwing, the All-Powerful Mighty General of War, Conqueror of Dreaded Wastes, Subjugator of Giants and Dragons, Destroyer of Mar'goths.

The living war machine and dreaded general marching at the front of his troop, cleaving and brining the law of his father, holy Emperor to his enemies and pushing their faces and bodies against ground to hear his words. Serving his father and the god of War, Blood and Tactics (Kargash interesting enough, I could picture in his portfolio also advancements towards knowledge and love.

Surrounded by his elite troops all 20 are fighters, a bit mix of different types (Archer & Phalanx, 2 or 3 Two-handed fighters) he is charging to even most impossible campaings and bringing the justice and light of emperor to the even furthest reach of the realm

Well, I will still need to expand a little bit on my background [Have Drawback & 3 traits but can stil discuss it if we need to bring it up a notch].

Another thing is that I still need to stat up Lieutenant of my troops as well the rest of 20 guys but as said, there will be not much of variation, except from my lieutenant: Need him to be at least some sort of caster. Otherwise I would be hard pressed in that front :) PS: its grovo

Will we be leveling or will the story take place at our current level?

Would retraining a feat be alright?

Could you break down your stats for me?

I keep coming up with 22 points spent and and the like.

Also, make a note of where each feat is from and at what level it was acquired.

For example.

Toughness (level 1 normal)
Weapon Focus (level 1 Human)
Power Attack (Level 1 Fighter)

~~

Leveling may occur if the campaign expands, but even for my provision for "Players team up to kill the Emperor" does not have leveling taken into account yet.

Feat Retraining I usually only see the need for when delaying a feat to an even level, but seeing you get a feat at two and four, I'd need a compelling reason.

18 14 18 16 17 18 = Original stats ( 5 / 0 / 5 / 2 / 3 / 5 -> total 20)

+1 from level 4 -> Wisdom = 18

18 16 18 16 18 18 = +2 Dex (Human racial +2)

20 16 18 16 18 18 = +2 Str (Belt of Giant Strength)

Will also correct the Feat advancement to be more clear

Ah, thanks I was forgetting level 4.

Divine protection has rank 5 K. Religion. And I have another feat that needs to be taken at level 5 so it's not delaying taking it. It would be retraining a previous one for one now qualified for. Not very compelling I know. Good chance you will have me remake this guy anyways :)

Well, I suppose my leniency will depend on how strong your build is compared to the other submissions I've received so far. :P

Very interesting
I have an idea for a suli monk (4 winds)/warlock/ninja who's gimmick is swift action teleporting to flank with himself and use sneak attack lightning punches for massive damage
The build is modeled after raiden from mortal combat

How do people feel about other players pointing out mistakes in their Character sheets? Usually I do not agree with it but as this is a PvP game (Sort of), is it acceptable?

In PvP you really shouldn't be looking at their character sheets.

I don't know why people keep telling everyone else what they're planning.

I look at character sheets if they are there because they are interesting and I can't help myself. I won't from now on and I'll share mine with the only character I looked at.

And it isn't what they are planning, it is mistakes. Like things that are done wrong, in compliance with your character creation rules and with the rules in general.

EDIT: Now I read the second part I assume you mean that in a "Seriously people this is a PvP game, don't give away your secrets" kinda way, rather than a "Who are you to tell them how to build their character" sort of way. Haha So sorry.

There. PM sent and everything is even.

I've also spotted a few errors and intend on assisting with that. I haven't yet, however.

While yes, you finding errors and pointing them out is good, you cannot discern that information without also learning what their character is capable of. The BEST option is for ME to look for errors, find them, and point them out. We shall see if my Rule Fu is up to the task.

As for your inability to do otherwise, such understandable weaknesses are why I requested applications be PMed to me.

Well I'll just refrain from clicking on Profiles till everything is common knowledge. I'm playing it close to the chest personally, now only two people apart from me know my build, you included.

I just really love character builds though. Haha And triple gestalt is so rich of interesting mixes. I can resist!

I'll have something ready today

Edit: What do you think of the Tome of Secrets Warlord Class?

Hmm. Would Craft Wondrous let us craft new items as the campaign progresses?

Other questions that might be useful publicly:
-Do troops get traits? Do lieutenants?
-How do you feel about variant Aasimar/Tiefling heritages?

In any case, I think I know how I want to build my character. I'll PM the details as I come up with them, but here's what I'd consider to be public backstory information about my character.

1. No.
2. Open to discussion.