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Greetings everyone, this is an interest check in an idea i've got since my current live face to face group just had a complete party wipe in Wrath of the Righteous. They all died in book 5 and with their deaths, the war was lost. The Ward Stones were shattered and the full might of the demon armies was unleashed on Golarian as the Worldwound grew exponentially. In response the gods moved as never before to quell the sudden onslaught and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of their followers. An unusual alliance between Asmodeus, Iomadae, Sarenrae and Cayden Cailean saved the world but destroyed it at the same time.
The four gods broke Divine Law and appeared on Golarian in the flesh. Iomadae and Cayden moved to fight off the demons with the support of Sarenrae's healing light as Asmodeus used his deep and forbidden knowledge of dark magic to cast a powerful spell that would forcibly seal the World Wound by collapsing the Wound and all the land within twenty miles into a great chasm. That this would kill the millions of soldiers fighting a retreating war against the demons meant nothing to the Father of Lies. To his eternal surprise however the World Wound resisted the Archdevil's magic, pulsing in response and vomiting out even more hordes of demons. Nothing he did seemed to work.
As a last resort Sarenrae tapped into the full depths of her power and summoned forth a lance of pure sunfire and cast it at the wound. The resulting explosion was so immense that people over a thousand miles away could feel the earth shake and hear the boom as a mushroom cloud hundresds of miles tall reached beyond the atmosphere and ejected thousands of tons of debris that would become a ring around the planet. Tidal waves washed over Magnimar and leveled the city as the island of Hermea vanished under the waves. Belkzen disappeared into fire and ash when several dormant volcanoes exploded all at the same time and shattered the orc empire. The great Cypher Gate of Riddleport fell into the bay as Mendev, Ustulav, Numeria and the western part of the Realm of the Mammoth Lords vanished into light and fury.
The Wound was sealed.
At what cost however? Millions were dead as the ground continued to shudder for several days following the explosion as the very land around the survivors warped. Brevoy woke up the day after the explosion to find a great escarpment had risen up to the west, sealing off western travel unless they were willing to travel several hundred miles south through the volatile River Kingdoms. Caliphas residents were thrown from their beds as the city rose up on the edge of a great cliff that overlooked the desolation of Ustalav to their north, now only smoke and shadows covered with thick clouds of volcanic ash and gases from Belkzen.
It was only a week after the initial shock of the explosion did the true horror of the event set in. As the various nations began to pick up the pieces did they realize that magic had stopped working. Wizards in every nation suddenly were little more then custodians of esoteric knowledge. Clerics, paladins, druids and all others who channeled the Divine's power were gone. Not dead, they simply vanished over night. With them went every manner of creature who flew, ran or swam in the oceans with significant magical power. Chaos erupted as mobs descended on the now empty temples to loot and pillage and only in cities with strong governments did law prevail. In Almas the army descended on the mobs headed towards the temples and dispersed them, taking the holy scripts and libraries and storing them under government protection. The Cathedral of the Starstone was sealed and not even a direct hit from a trebuche could open those doors. The Starstone was sealed away, seemingly forever.
The gods had become silent.
Varisia suddenly had to deal with an influx of panicked and demoralized Orcs, the shattered remnants of a once powerful people. To add insult to injury the orcs found no respite from the vengeful Varisians, long subject to the brutality of their neighbors to the east. In a stunning display of bloodlust the Varisians began to slaughter the orcs by the thousands, reducing an already broken people to a shadow of their previous glory. Never again would the orcs rise to prominence as a people.
In Cheliax the opposite happened. With their diabolic allies all cast back into the nine hells and those capapable of summoning infernal servants gone the thrice-damned house of Thrune faced the unimaginable; nothing protected them but the questionable loyalty of normal palace guards. It was at this time that the Army of Light struck for freedom. Despite lacking any magical support the people, with sudden support from Andoran, rose up in revolt and for 3 long years civil war ravaged the the country before Queen Abrogail II herself was marched out and publically executed in front of her palace.
The army of Andoran moved in with the collapse of the Chalaxian government as the people vented decades of suppressed rage on the noble houses who had publicly supported the devil god Asmodeus. Before the country dissolved into the chaos that was Galt the Andorans stepped in and created an interim government while they taught the now free Chelaxians the ideas of democracy and free market. Those few noble houses still alive were allowed freedom only it was proven they had never openly supported the diabolists and their noble titles gave them no power over the free people. When the armies of Molthune threw off the yoke of Cheliax and invaded Isger and Nidal on either side of it, the armies of Andoran were forced to mobilize to counter the aggressive expansionists. This war was known as the War of Roses and it was the stalwart and unflinching heroism of the Andorans, with unexpected financial support from Druma merchants, that finally severed the country from it's infernal contracts.
After battling against hellknight rebels, Morthal expansionists and what was left of the shadow houses of Nidal for close to 20 years the Andoran's were left with hundreds of miles of new country they didn't want but had defended out of necessity. Many of the free people of Cheliax had joined the Andoran's in battling Morthal and Nidal and now they were a single united force believing in freedom and the choice to choose. But democracy cannot protect such a huge expanse of land and resources and despite the Andoran's best effort to teach the people of Cheliax, they wanted something that the Andoran's weren't willing to give; a new ruler. The Andoran's had developed their country on the idea of democracy and free market and the idea of installing a ruler of any kind over their kin to the west was repugnant. It took close to fifty years for public support to shift enough that the border between Andoran and Cheliax dissolved and they became one country. A new city was founded at the midpoint of the new large country and named Rodan after the name of the Andoran general who led the forces that defeated the forces of Molthune. Rodan became the new capital of Andoran as the borders of the country now spread all the way to the Arcadian Ocean and they became one of the most powerful countries in the world.
Over the next 200 years the strange technology from the Mana Wastes blossomed. With no clerics to channel healing magic wounds festered and killed until more mundane healers could once against become true masters of their craft. Knowledge in the medical fields become more advanced then ever, mainly due to thousands dying to the plague that followed the first years after the war. Now is the era of the steam engine, a mighty device of steel and fire that turned water into vapor and pulled vehicles hundreds of feet long over parallel tracks that wound across the countyside for hundreds of miles. The temples, if they even stand, are edifices of the old world.
So the world the PCs would be in is a world devoid of magic, with a few notable exceptions. Sorcerers, wizards, arcanist, magus, etc., they don't exist anymore. The following classes would be allowed with the exception of any supernatural abilities, either from core class or archetypes:
Fighter
Barbarian
Ranger (trap)
Rogue
Cavalier
Brawler
Gunslinger
Vigilante
Slayer
Swashbuckler
The bard will also be allowed, with special exception. The bardic spells do not work anymore but for some reason, bardic performances do. They are harder to perform (requiring a DC 20 to even get them to work) but their effect is magnified. Any bonuses to your allies are doubled. Any abilities that negatively affect an enemy have their DCs increased by 5. An example is the fascinate ability. Normal DC the enemy has to overcome is Will Save 10+ 1/2 Bard Level+ Cha mod. Now that is 15 + 1/2 Bard Level + Cha. I know that makes the Bard a bit janky but those are the rules. This also means the most powerful healers are Bard's above 12th level who don't fail the DC 20 check to perform Soothing Performance.
Any races with supernatural abilities can no longer use those abilities. Darkvision and such is not supernatural. The gnome's spell-like ability is gone, along with all other races with spell-like or supernatural abilities.
As to how normal people heal in a world devoid of magic? The Heal skill is now your best friend. It is a class skill for all classes now. High level adventuring parties are usually those with the most scars.
Now in a world devoid of powerful magical creatures to hunt down and vanquish and their lairs to loot, what's the draw for adventuring parties? Magic items and finding out what has happened in the north! When magic stopped working so too did magical items. Nothing from a 0 level potion to a Staff of Power was immune from this effect. However not all magic items are equal and not all magic items had their powers turned off. Now the big draw is to find and survive the pitfalls of looting countries like Geb and Nex that had a sudden power vacuum as all of their undead masters vanished 200 years ago and the magical defenses were turned off. Sometimes.
And in a world devoid of magic steam technology and it's ilk were allowed to flourish. With Numeria's destruction in the Cataclysm, or Second Starfall as it's called, all of the fantastic technology from the alien ship that had crashed was destroyed. The few pieces that had been smuggled out of the country haven't been replicated and most are out of power now. Geb and Nex have been silent since Second Starfall and tales of an unusually cold winter start filtering from Brevoy. Will you stay safe behind the walls of Westcrown or will you brave the long and perilous journey to glory?
Ok that's rather long winded for a simple interest check but as it's a drastic change from the normal Golarian world (and both I and my group didn't expect them to wipe, too many 20's on the bad guys attack rolls), I want to see if there is interest before I explain some of the game mechanics and character creation.
I am already interested, but I will ask a question. A question you probably already thought about and maybe won't want to answer... but I will ask it anyway.
The world is devoid of magic with the exception of certain magic items, items that everybody who happen unto treasure as they are akin to artifacts now.
But if some magic items survived the cataclysm... did other magic thing survive?
What I mean is... will the Party find magical creatures and sources of power later in the campaign? Because that would be awesome, to be honest.
Anyway, I am interested. Only other question I have is the firearm expansion and how common are they, but that can wait until you show us character creation and such.
No problem with asking that question, but I wont answer it OOC. That's something you would have to find out via adventuring. What happened to magic items, magic creatures? What happened to the gods, why did they go silent!? XD
Gun's are about the same since the world was focused on rebuilding society but the price of them has normalized. More will be said in character creation.
Slightly interested. Kind of like a Dragonlance game with even less magic.
I've been looking for another campaign to sink my teeth into, so this seems fun even if I am worried about the lack of healing.
Another question Skull, how would you run this campaign? Uh, that was more vague than I had hoped. Let me explain, would this be a play by post? Would we meet up on discord or skype? If the later, when would we meet? Or would that be decided once you have a group together?
I already have several writing responsibilities so I am leery of adding another.
Definitely interested, but I'd also be curious to know how you intend to run the game (PbP, Online, etc.)
This sounds fantastic. Count me in as interested.
Dot
I AM SUPER INTERESTED.
I have a fighter build I just cooked up and wanted to use anyway, and it happens to only use Rogue, Fighter, Barb, and Vigilante levels. It'll be risky playing him in a setting with no magic, but I love no magic settings anyway.
What posting frequency do you want?
And I really need to get some Skill Focus (Heal) with Skill Unlocks for the Heal skill, don't I? I'll chew on this.
Are Religion traits and Magic traits that don't depend on spellcasting still available?
EDIT: Example traits...
Battlefield Surgeon, Precise Treatment.
EDIT 2: Also, the other campaigns I'm trying to get into are a Kingmaker one, and one that I don't actually know what it will be like yet. I may be denied in those, so we're looking at a potential max of 3 games, and that won't be a problem for me.
I can post 1/day pretty easily; more than that would be questionable as I don't get home until 9-10 p.m. usually.
If this is using voice chat and roll 20 or something, pretty much the only time slot I can guarantee will be open every week is Monday evenings. I work weekends and Monday is the only day that I have convinced my boss is too sacrosanct to me to be touched.
I'd love to play this if you decide to run it PbP
Intriguing concept. I've been tinkering around with a the concept of a low/no magic world at times too.
Count me among the interested should this become a full-blown recruitment.
Neat, interested
@ShroudedInLight: This will be a PbP only with a requested posting schedule of 1/day.
@Inlaa: Battlefield Surgeon would be half useless as heal would be a class skill for all classes. Precise Treatment would be fine as it has no magic and would be a likely skill for those characters who become pure "Doctors".
Yes, traits that fall within the 'Religion' or 'Magic' lists but use no magic would be alright. And even after 200 years of silence there are still some people who call out to the higher powers.
Why no investigator class?
Skull you say it was rather long winded, but that was a Very well done introduction into a world your building. I'm hooked, I'd love to see where you plan on taking this.
I've interesting writing style covering all parts of the world and how it's affecting each part. I'd be very interested in this, gives me a judge dreddish feel.. along that line of what could be out there in the wastes. (I'd properly go for a bounty hunter type slayer)
I'll just say i'm interested in this and will apply but outside of that I'd love to just read a long. Look forward too seeing the recruitment.
Why no investigator class?
Magic doesn't work and that includes extracts and bombs of both the Alchemist and the Investigator. Lots of different societies collapsed in the wake of the Second Starfall, not all of them covered in my introduction because they were always partially insular in the first place. Their collapse might not have been noticed as the world started to piece itself back together. That's what adventurers would discover. This means that any long lived races who might have once been magic users now have a distinct possibility that their culture was either shattered or they simply abandoned the Arts. Who is there to teach new Investigators if all the human ones are dead and current long lived Investigators can't get any extracts to work?
Why no investigator class?Magic doesn't work and that includes extracts and bombs of both the Alchemist and the Investigator. Lots of different societies collapsed in the wake of the Second Starfall, not all of them covered in my introduction because they were always partially insular in the first place. Their collapse might not have been noticed as the world started to piece itself back together. That's what adventurers would discover. This means that any long lived races who might have once been magic users now have a distinct possibility that their culture was either shattered or they simply abandoned the Arts. Who is there to teach new Investigators if all the human ones are dead and current long lived Investigators can't get any extracts to work?
Just playing devil's advocate here, but what about Sleuth Investigators?
That particular archetype looses the alchemy class feature in favor of luck based abilities and deeds.
Why no investigator class?Magic doesn't work and that includes extracts and bombs of both the Alchemist and the Investigator. Lots of different societies collapsed in the wake of the Second Starfall, not all of them covered in my introduction because they were always partially insular in the first place. Their collapse might not have been noticed as the world started to piece itself back together. That's what adventurers would discover. This means that any long lived races who might have once been magic users now have a distinct possibility that their culture was either shattered or they simply abandoned the Arts. Who is there to teach new Investigators if all the human ones are dead and current long lived Investigators can't get any extracts to work?Just playing devil's advocate here, but what about Sleuth Investigators?
That particular archetype looses the alchemy class feature in favor of luck based abilities and deeds.
Ah I didn't realize that alchemy covered both the C. Alchemy skill AND their extracts. So yes, any investigator archetype that sacrifices extracts would be fine.
W O W! Just, wow. WOW! Holy S#it! Wow! I mean,
What a concept! I am SO interested!
I noticed no mention of psychic magic and other concepts mentioned in Occult Adventures? I would love for you to elaborate on that!
With such death and destruction, spirits and undead must stalk the land.
No psionics. Don't like'em, sorry. Please reread my entry on Geb and Nex on how they are an adventurer's paradise...if the automated spell magical defenses actually failed.
Ok it seems people are missing one of the big mysteries of this world. When the big boom boom happened, ALL OF THE MAGICAL CREATURES VANISHED. Dragons, unicorns, fae, on and on all the way to all the types of undead. They didn't fall over dead, they just vanished. No one knows, even 200 years later, what happened to them.
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Wow. Just copy/paste what theWaskaly said up there. This has gotten me pretty excited.
So, what if I wanted to play a living relic. Say, a former elf wizard well into his middle years that is protecting a book so special to him he would die to protect it? Kinda like the title character of the movie The Book of Eli without the religion. Would that be acceptable?
Wow. Just copy/paste what theWaskaly said up there. This has gotten me pretty excited.
So, what if I wanted to play a living relic. Say, a former elf wizard well into his middle years that is protecting a book so special to him he would die to protect it? Kinda like the title character of the movie The Book of Eli without the religion. Would that be acceptable?
Understand that if i allowed that, if you made it through the character selection, I would have to roll to see if that book retained any magic. I do have a set number on a d100 that I will roll for every item that MIGHT have retained it's magic. It's a very low percentage but not impossible. Also even if the book retained magic, you would be a wizard without magic. Would you really have stayed at 3rd level (which is what I would start the group at) for 200 years?
hemy class feature in favor of luck based abilities and deeds.Ah I didn't realize that alchemy covered both the C. Alchemy skill AND their extracts. So yes, any investigator archetype that sacrifices extracts would be fine.
A Sherlock Holmes-sleuth looking to solve the greatest mystery of them all? Where did the magical critters go?
Interesting idea...
It sounds like you may have already made up your mind regarding magic items, so these are just a food-for-thought suggestions.
What if the magic in magic items didn't just go *poof!* along with the abilities? Maybe they functioned, but most were faulty behaving like what the Technology Guide outlines for tech that may not be working properly. The ability to create more having vanished, what was left would definitely become hot items, especially after 200 years, most of them are used up or has been squirreled away by the powerful. I would assume the ability to regain charges would be nigh impossible.
Also, The First World sourcebook has suggestions for faulty magic. Some of those would be a great idea for what magic items may do now.
Lastly (alternatively), perhaps most magic items are instead dangerous with the magic in them suddenly corrupted making 90% of what exists function liked a bad Crafting roll and making them cursed.
Just some thoughts inspired by your interesting setting, so definitely not trying to step on toes with my theorycrafting.
:)
Interesting idea...
It sounds like you may have already made up your mind regarding magic items, so these are just a food-for-thought suggestions.
What if the magic in magic items didn't just go *poof!* along with the abilities? Maybe they functioned, but most were faulty behaving like what the Technology Guide outlines for tech that may not be working properly. The ability to create more having vanished, what was left would definitely become hot items, especially after 200 years, most of them are used up or has been squirreled away by the powerful. I would assume the ability to regain charges would be nigh impossible.
Also, The First World sourcebook has suggestions for faulty magic. Some of those would be a great idea for what magic items may do now.
Lastly (alternatively), perhaps most magic items are instead dangerous with the magic in them suddenly corrupted making 90% of what exists function liked a bad Crafting roll and making them cursed.
Just some thoughts inspired by your interesting setting, so definitely not trying to step on toes with my theorycrafting.
:)
I could deal with it that way but for now I'm sticking with most of them are dead. There is a specific reason for that has a much, much bigger impact on the game world if the pc's discover it.
Super interesting!! Following along for character creation and more info!!
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Understand that if i allowed that, if you made it through the character selection, I would have to roll to see if that book retained any magic. I do have a set number on a d100 that I will roll for every item that MIGHT have retained it's magic. It's a very low percentage but not impossible. Also even if the book retained magic, you would be a wizard without magic. Would you really have stayed at 3rd level (which is what I would start the group at) for 200 years?
Oh, not at all. I wasn't expecting it to be magical. In fact I was expecting it to be entirely... booky? Not magical. He would have been reshaped into another man entirely by his experience. Essentially, he would retrain into something else. Swashbuckler maybe? Brawler to represent his enormous experience? I just like the idea of a man who can look at a ruin and say, "You know, those columns there used to be pink..." A kind of old man among children vibe. Another character reference would be Ser Barristan Selmy of Game of Thrones fame. And old man still clinging to old ways in order to preserve a history that just might fall into myth if he fails in his efforts to remember.
Oh, not at all. I wasn't expecting it to be magical. In fact I was expecting it to be entirely... booky? Not magical. He would have been reshaped into another man entirely by his experience. Essentially, he would retrain into something else. Swashbuckler maybe? Brawler to represent his enormous experience? I just like the idea of a man who can look at a ruin and say, "You know, those columns there used to be pink..." A kind of old man among children vibe. Another character reference would be Ser Barristan Selmy of Game of Thrones fame. And old man still clinging to old ways in order to preserve a history that just might fall into myth if he fails in his efforts to remember.
No problem with that. And if you are an elf, 200 years is nothing.
Oh, not at all. I wasn't expecting it to be magical. In fact I was expecting it to be entirely... booky? Not magical. He would have been reshaped into another man entirely by his experience. Essentially, he would retrain into something else. Swashbuckler maybe? Brawler to represent his enormous experience? I just like the idea of a man who can look at a ruin and say, "You know, those columns there used to be pink..." A kind of old man among children vibe. Another character reference would be Ser Barristan Selmy of Game of Thrones fame. And old man still clinging to old ways in order to preserve a history that just might fall into myth if he fails in his efforts to remember.
Understand that if i allowed that, if you made it through the character selection, I would have to roll to see if that book retained any magic. I do have a set number on a d100 that I will roll for every item that MIGHT have retained it's magic. It's a very low percentage but not impossible. Also even if the book retained magic, you would be a wizard without magic. Would you really have stayed at 3rd level (which is what I would start the group at) for 200 years?
There are ways to make a kickass martial that does his job with his intelligence.
Like this guy. And this feat. This feat works too.
In fact, an old elf warrior dude who fought with his brain was going to be an alternative idea to my dwarf, but I settled on the dwarf because dwarf. With that said, I plan for my dwarf to be old, too, but very different.
If I may do so without any stat effects, I'd like my dwarf to be in the Middle Aged category. His father's father was a cleric of Torag that vanished with all the others. In fact, many of his family were holy men and women, and they all disappeared that same day. His father (who is still around) is a very devout man still despite this.
But this dwarf - let's call him Balduin - Balduin has sincere doubts about the veracity of all this 'gods' and 'magic' business. He's read the books, and he knows people that swear still that these things are real, but he has never seen them with his own eyes. A part of him yearns for it all to be real, so he can be a part of a historic world so much richer than the present, but the grim reality is that there are no miracles or divine interventions in his world.
I figure this guy is somber and serious and has probably fought in a war or three. He's a soldier-turned-mercenary (and probably a deserter at least once) that only trusts in steel to protect him, and he covers himself head to toe with it.
Classwise, given the 3rd level starting point, he'd be an Unchained Scout Rogue / Siegebreaker Fighter. Eventually he'll also get levels of Armored Hulk Barbarian and Vigilante.
And I will be up front and say this build involves lots of bull rushes and overruns and shenanigans revolving around the Bulette Charge Style feats and stuff that makes crashing through enemies awesome. It also may make the character short-lived.
Also, I'll need to reread your intro, but I'm assuming the city of Highhelm in the Five Kings Mountains is fine? I'd like him to be from there, since it sits right over the Darklands.
What are those like nowadays, by the way? The Darklands, I mean.
Darklands? That's a brilliant question!
Wizard to Investigator with no alchemy is not much of a stretch
Except the investigator has archetypes that can fill the hole of the part of his class that is not allowed (Extracts) whilst the wizard is kinda effed without spells.
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There are ways to make a kickass martial that does his job with his intelligence.
Like this guy. And this feat. This feat works too.
In fact, an old elf warrior dude who fought with his brain was going to be an alternative idea to my dwarf, but I settled on the dwarf because dwarf. With that said, I plan for my dwarf to be old, too, but very different.
Indeed, applied intelligence in response to an age of brute force and chaos is one of the facets I'm going for. Probably dex based wielding an Elven curve blade because I've never built around that weapon before. Probably brawler.
That PrC is cool, but I would only take it to 7 as the last two levels are (Su) and so they no longer work.
There are ways to make a kickass martial that does his job with his intelligence.
Like this guy. And this feat. This feat works too.
In fact, an old elf warrior dude who fought with his brain was going to be an alternative idea to my dwarf, but I settled on the dwarf because dwarf. With that said, I plan for my dwarf to be old, too, but very different.
Indeed, applied intelligence in response to an age of brute force and chaos is one of the facets I'm going for. Probably dex based wielding an Elven curve blade because I've never built around that weapon before. Probably brawler.
That PrC is cool, but I would only take it to 7 as the last two levels are (Su) and so they no longer work.
Yeah, I just noticed that. A 2 level dip into it isn't a bad call though if your INT is higher than your DEX. Tack on that Elven Battle Style stuff with that curved blade and you've got some interesting stuff going on.
You could also use Artful Dodge to qualify for anything that requires Dodge or DEX with that feat or INT. The only thing you can't do with INT as an actual martial is get INT to attack bonus. (That'd require VMC Magus. I've done research. And VMC Magus is pretty obviously not allowed here.)
A note on Brawler: I don't think you can use the Flurry with that sword, sadly. Brawlers flurry with Close weapons. But you do get Martial Flexibility, and that's awesome.