The Age of Progress; A Kingmaker Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master leinathan

Hello everyone and welcome to my table of Kingmaker in the Age of Progress. Thanks so much for your time and attention in recruitment. I've already made a Gameplay post with a nice, relaxing scenario so that you can get started RPing with each other and with random NPCs (whom I can introduce as needed). I also need to spend some time finishing up the Campaign Info tab, copying down your equipment into a loot list and auditing you guys. Please introduce yourselves to each other in here!

I'd like everyone to please add a header which has the following information: Current/Maximum hit points, Armor Class (touch, flat-footed), your saves (+any situational modifiers), your CMD, your Perception bonus, your Initiative bonus and any senses you have (like darkvision).

Somewhere in your profile you should be tracking your resources. I like to do this directly in my profile like (this), (you can see each level of spells has a parenthetical tracker next to it, as does his number of meta words per day). Some players keep this in the header as well, like (this). Isilme has many different types of resources, so there are many acronyms for each category. You will be expected to keep your hit point total and your current resources up-to-date.

Now that I've got you, I will also bring up a couple of houserules:

I will be using some skill consolidation:

Knowledge (history, geography, and nobility) are fused into one skill called Knowledge (society), which covers all uses of all three skills.

Heal and Survival are fused into one skill, now called Survival.

Acrobatics now covers crossing threatened spaces, balancing, plus all of the uses of Escape Artist and Fly.

A new skill, Athletics (STR-based), covers jumping, as well as climbing and swimming.

Everyone gets Power Attack, Deadly Aim, and Combat Expertise for free, regardless of prerequisites. In addition, Improved Unarmed Strike and Improved Grapple are fused into one feat, now called Unarmed Combatant. Point Blank Shot and Precise Shot are fused into one feat, called Precise Shot.

If you have redundant skill ranks or feats due to these consolidation rules, you may immediately choose new ones. I will link this post in the campaign info tab for future reference, in case you forget the rules.

OK. I think that's enough for one post ;) Enjoy, and nice to be playing with you!

Thank you for the selection, looking forward to the game.

I went back to recheck my character sheet and found a few mistakes that I tried to correct, hopefully I found them all.

Also I had a few questions that I was saving.

Q1: You cannot. A gun's grip is much smaller than the pommel of a sword, which is what I assume the feature was intended to be used with.

Q2: It would be considerate to invest in your own tent and bedroll, although you will not need to carry them yourself. If you don't and you need one, mundane gear isn't hard to find after adventuring starts.

Q3: Yes. For all intents and purposes, both feats are treated as the same one feat. If you would gain either you instead gain the benefits of both.

Q4: There will be limited opportunities until your settlements have developed some. It would be prudent to stock up each time you find more ammunition.

Reporting in!

Re: spoiler- That sounds great GM, thanks.

Updating my sheet now to reflect the house rules and formatting requests. I'll get my first post in once I'm finished with the edits.

Dotted in. I feel like I need a better last name. I'll work on updating the profile and getting a post up after work is over :o

Greetings everyone! I look forward to Kaussek being cool but slowly warming up to you. :D

Those tweaks will make a small difference for Kaussek, particularly the free Power Attack. The skill consolidation lets him move one skill point. :D

Hi everyone, I'll get everything updated into this alias shortly.

Free Power attack is pretty cool for Ishana ironically enough, as I would have picked it up sooner or later.

Skill Consolidation is a little awkward to use in HL but it gives Ishana one free skill point to use. I might pick up Craft (Tattoo), as something flavorful. Ishana seems like the person that could do that.

Q1: You cannot. A gun's grip is much smaller than the pommel of a sword, which is what I assume the feature was intended to be used with.

GM, I'm not going to quibble your ruling, but I thought I'd bring up a point of realism in case it matters.

A shotgun stock is substantially larger than a sword pommel, and are frequently hollowed out to cut down on weight. Usually that's where the gun's cleaning kit is kept. That's been a standard design of full-stock rifles and shotguns since the age of Pinkertons on stagecoaches.

I think Lyon should be all completed now.

• Added stats and resources to spoilers in header.

• Fixed all my skills/feats for the new rules.

• Added the Solar Wind Style feat.

• Bought a tent, cot, and soap.

• Bought 20 more Metal Cartridges, now 50 total.

• Added the Weapon Focus feat.

Have I missed anything?

Regarding Free Feats: Does everyone in the realm gain those feats for free? Or only some? Should we therefore be worried about taking larger chunks of damage at a time? If a statblock comes with 'Power Attack' do you give the creature a new feat to replace it?

I have put the recouped points from skills into Athletics, and left K(Geography) as the new K(Society) for my character.

Does a class feature that gives +X to heal simply add to survival as a whole, or only those things that heal pertains to? For example, would a Vivisectionist turn K(Nature) into Heal -and- Survival?

Ok, now that I've made those gameplay posts, it's time to begin bookkeeping!

First, questions:

@Marcus - I suppose I didn't consider the stock of a gun, that's a good point. With that in mind, I would allow a hollowed stock to contain hidden items.

@Aisha - No, I wasn't considering giving everyone in the realm those feats for free. Instead, I would give bonus feats to characters that already possessed them. Instead of expecting to take more damage from everyone, expect that standard "warrior" type characters will be a bit tougher and more versatile than normal.

And yes, a class feature that gives +x to a portion of a consolidated skill only gives its bonus for those usages of the skill. It's the same with tools or items which give a bonus - for example, the boots of elvenkind give a +5 bonus to Acrobatics, which I would say applies to Acrobatics checks to balance and Athletics checks to jump.

Next, audits. I will do Lyon first.

@Lyon -

Lyon's Knowledge (society) bonus should be +10 - it's not marked as a class skill even though it should be because she has both Knowledge (nobility) and Knowledge (history) as class skills.

Where is Lyon's favored class bonus going?

Otherwise, looks great! I might recommend that you look through and get some more random mundane tools (rope?), but I can't say that in all my time playing Pathfinder that I've ever used a bag of flour or a normal hammer or a ten-foot pole, so I don't think its a big deal.

@Marcus Cowl -

Marcus has a section in his equipment marked Carried by Minions. I assume this is a holdover from a previous edit, but does Marcus actually have minions that I don't know about?

Can you add a CL and concentration bonus to each of his spellcasting totals? It's not difficult to figure out on the fly but it's nice to have it written somewhere... unless I missed it somewhere else. Your spells could be listed like this:

Antipaladin (CL 0, concentration 0)
None yet!

Oracle (CL 1st, concentration +3)

Orisons
blah blah

1st-level
blah blah

You have your Know (religion) modified by Wisdom for some reason, when really it's modified by Intelligence. Thus, its bonus should be +9 instead of +8.

Otherwise, looks good!

@Ishana -

Ishana has one too many 2nd-level spells in her spellbook, which I assume means that you've purchased an extra spell via scribing. Can you keep track of which spells are purchased and which spells are gained via leveling with some symbol, so that I can be sure you have the right number of spells in the future?

It seems that illustrious urbanite and perfect are both elven racial traits, and Ishana is a half-elf. How is she gaining access to that? As far as I know, half-elves being able to take elf-restricted material does not include actual racial traits. It includes Race traits like "warrior of old", the elven-specific reactionary trait, but not racial traits like elves' +2 to Int and Dex.

Can you add ranks to your skills, please?

Where is Ishana's favored class bonus going?

You should mark Ishana's "enhancement" bonus to armor as an armor bonus, because that's what it is. It makes her touch AC 12.

Otherwise, is finished.

@Kaussek -

As per Kaussek's draconic bloodline, his natural claw attacks should have a d6 damage dice. In addition, his natural armor bonus should be +4 total and he should have fire resist 5. Because these abilities don't require a bloodrage, they function all the time for him.

His profile says that he can only use spellstrike while in mystic focus, when in fact it is spell combat that he can only use while in mystic focus, and he can use spellstrike at any time.

Can you write down somewhere that his bloodline is red-dragon?

Seems like he has 29 skill ranks. He should have 28 (2 magus, 2 Int, 2 background, 1 favored per level x 4) skill ranks, assuming that his favored class bonus is going towards skill ranks. Looks like he still has Climb listed separately from Athletics, just delete that and it's good.

Kaussek's Savage trait gives him a +1 bonus to Survival checks to get along in the wild, which you should list.

@Aisha -

Would you mind adding a parenthetical customization point cost for each customization on your suit?

As far as I can see, you're spending 2 points on extra speed, 1 point on Stalwart, and 2 points on initiator's soul as your 5 customizations, but I don't like to have to reverse-engineer those things.

Is it intended that you've not chosen any customizations that you can choose using the trailblazer's rapid adjustment ability, or was it an oversight?

Can you add the android racial saving throw bonuses to her saving throw section in the header and in the profile?

Can you add concentration and CL to her spells section?

Aisha's CMB should be +3 (3 BAB, 0 STR)
Aisha's bonus to hit with her longbow should be +9 (3 BAB, 5 Dex, 1 enhancement)

Fixed the class skill, thank you.

Where is Lyon's favored class bonus going?

Lyon's favored class is Warder, Favored Class: Warder, +1/2 To armiger’s mark daily uses. It is listed on her profile and on the mythweaver sheet under "Additional Information" but I forget to add the +1 to my resources so she has 4 marks instead of 3.

Otherwise, looks great! I might recommend that you look through and get some more random mundane tools (rope?), but I can't say that in all my time playing Pathfinder that I've ever used a bag of flour or a normal hammer or a ten-foot pole, so I don't think its a big deal.

Always down for shopping, how much gold should I keep liquid?

I added that CMB +8 was with weapons, and CMB +3 is without. I added save bonuses to header and defense section (as well as immunities to defense section). I added CL and Concentration to the spells section. The bow attack was a poor holdover from another character's stats.

I have not listed any customizations other than speed, but speed is an option; this allows me to exchange 5 feet of movement for swim or underwater breathing, or 10 for both -or- climb, at the moment. Would you like for me to add the climb, swim, and underwater breathing abilities to my profile and list them as inactive?

Speaking of Trailblazer, I have gone with 'no' as the answer to myself, but it doesn't hurt to ask. Are the two free 'Speed' customizations granted by Astral Skin also within that pool for exchange? I'm uncertain when it would come up (maybe having a climb speed or fly speed while I burrow later on to prevent mishaps?)

When Aisha's nanites activate and she glows as a torch, does her Astral Suit prevent her from actually shedding light as it envelops her entire body?

@Marcus: If you still have some money, a Boline definitely seems like something a traveling doctor should have.

Thanks for the edits. I'll take care of them in a few hours.

Back when Marcus was full Antipaladin he had minions. By taking a level of Oracle I pushed that back until next level. (Sad face)

So no, Marcus has no minions yet, but he will.

Aisha: Thanks! That's definitely going in Marcus' pack.

@Lyon - I'm not expecting that you'll have any cause to spend money for awhile.

@Aisha - The free customizations granted by the type of suit can't be changed. And whoops, I overlooked that speed was an option :O

Since Aisha's astral suit is made of her nanites, the suit itself should glow, yes?

@Faluhann -

Can you add ranks to his skills section?

Where is the monster challenger trait? I'm not finding it easily.

He should only have 3 uses of martial flexibility, unless you have something else increasing those. Brawlers have 3 + 1/2 level uses.

Faluhann should have an extra language, as it seems he has a rank in Linguistics.

You can merge his ranks in Survival + Heal as well as his ranks in Climb + Swim into Athletics and Survival, and I think you should have two ranks left over.

Can you make a statblock for Faluhann's familiar, Sil?

Made my edits, but just ran into an annoying snag in my concept. Life Link only allows 1 person in the link per Oracle level.

Does anyone know of ways to get functional Life Link that does not involve sacrificing half my feats for VMC or taking 5 levels of Oracle?

Apparently there are two ways-

1) Trick a Ring of Revelation with Use Magic Device.

2) Take the Spark of Divinity and Emergent Divinity feats to gain a single revelation through a back door into Godling powers (this is third party stuff, so I don't even know if it's allowed)

I believe the traditional oradin build was oracle 4/paladin x for this very reason, but you don't necessarily need to keep everyone in your life link all at the same time. Two or three bonds should be all that's necessary, right?

Rogue genius stuff is allowed in this game, as was listed in the recruitment.

If Rogue Genius stuff is allowed, that's the route I'll go. Looks like I have another re-work to undergo. Give me a bit.

While we're on the subject of 3rd party stuff, how do you feel about this antipalading archetype? It's basically the opposite of the spell-less Paladin archetype that Paizo put out.

There is in fact already a Paizo version of that archetype which I would prefer you use.

@Marcus the Amulet of spirits lets you treat your level as 2 higher if you pick a mystery you already have if you leave Lyon out you'd have everyone but it's 12k for life.

@Harrow Here is the Monster Challenger trait if you still need it.

Thanks Lyon. I'll add that to my list of things to consider. I'm a long ways off from affording it though.

GM, I think my rework is done. Thanks for the help. I've dropped Oracle but kept Lifelink via the two feats I mentioned. I've also dropped Spellcasting in favor of the archetype you posted.

I think I have all the numbers adjusted.

Updated, everything should be fine.

Does the Enchantment bonus have to be treated as an armor bonus GM? It doesn't say anything like that in its text (just that its an enhancement bonus to my clothing which is currently +0 amour).

If its treated as an 'armor bonus', then its less useful for a caster since it conflicts with Mage Amour, something that is a little frustrating.

@Ishana You could attune to a shield instead, assuming that makes it a shield bonus instead of an armor bonus. It would cost 1,005 gold to have mitral buckler which will have no spell fail or ACP and by the time you'd need to attune to the shield and armor the mage armor spell would be worse anyway.

Its a nice idea, but Ishana will be transforming herself by the time I'm spending that sort of money, and often wouldn't have the ability to then have a shield in her hand. Mythic Mage Armor is 100% going to be the best option - a +6 armor bonus in any form is hard to beat.

@Kaussek -

As per Kaussek's draconic bloodline, his natural claw attacks should have a d6 damage dice. In addition, his natural armor bonus should be +4 total and he should have fire resist 5. Because these abilities don't require a bloodrage, they function all the time for him.

Ah, nice! I'll just have to convince HeroLab of that fact (because otherwise I'm going to accidentally delete my tweaks when he levels up), but I know how to do that.

His profile says that he can only use spellstrike while in mystic focus, when in fact it is spell combat that he can only use while in mystic focus, and he can use spellstrike at any time.

Huh. I'll admit I didn't even look at that on his sheet. XD

Can you write down somewhere that his bloodline is red-dragon?

Seems like he has 29 skill ranks. He should have 28 (2 magus, 2 Int, 2 background, 1 favored per level x 4) skill ranks, assuming that his favored class bonus is going towards skill ranks. Looks like he still has Climb listed separately from Athletics, just delete that and it's good.

Kaussek's Savage trait gives him a +1 bonus to Survival checks to get along in the wild, which you should list.

Yeah, I just forgot to delete Climb. I'll get those written in, I'll just have to remember to keep it up when I level up.

@Marcus - His HP should change back to 48. You still have the conditional damage bonus from Blade of Mercy on your sheet, but I don't believe you still have that trait. Also, his CMD and CMB should go back up 1 point because his BAB improved. I don't believe Marcus has a deflection bonus though?

@Ishana - It does indeed have to be either an armor or a shield bonus, and you do have to buy a shield to attune to it. Essentially you'd be wearing +1 clothes, which give a +1 armor bonus to AC instead of the +0 bonus that clothes usually give. It replaces having enhancement bonuses on weapons and armor.

Hey everyone, I'd also like to mention that we will be utilizing unchained's wounds thresholds subsystem. This is fairly simple and I will be keeping track of it for you, but essentially it means that for every 25% health your character loses, they get a -1 penalty to attack rolls, AC, caster level, saving throws and skills.

Don't we all have a +1 deflection modifier from Armor attunement?

EDIT: It's enhancement. My mistake.

Aisha has Invigorating Suit, which in every way except for wearing medium armor, mirrors the Endurance Feat. Does that apply to the wound threshold penalties as well? Is it fair to assume that the Endurance Feat stacks with Invigorating Suit?

I'm a pretty big fan of wound thresholds, as it gives an accurate read on how damaged foes are in debuff/buff terms and makes damage a much more effective means of dealing with problems. I also fear it, because MAH BARD CL IS ONE. :O

It's an enhancement to your existing armor or shield bonus. You choose a suit or armor or a shield, and that suit or armor or shield becomes magical +1 equipment.

You're wearing a suit of half-plate, which gives +8 armor. If you attune to it, it becomes +1 half-plate and gives +9 armor.

And yes, your assumption for how it works is just fine, Aisha.

@Marcus: Have you looked into Path of War at all? Zealot might be well up your alley for later levels. Collective and Martyrdom seem to fit a lot of what you're looking for. There are some pretty nifty abilities therein that may inspire you a bit.

They're also psionic, in addition to being martials, which bolsters the effectiveness of the Sleeping Goddess discipline a bit (which is mostly philosophical nonsense that I only understand on a maneuver by maneuver basis).

Surprisingly, they're full BAB, charisma based, and come with some nifty bonuses. Bear in mind that Aisha doesn't gain benefits from your primary Zeal functions if you go this route... but you also gain access to a lot of psionic feats that can be pretty cool, as well!

The only danger is in its inherent assumption that you get inside the heads of your allies, not just literally but figuratively. :P

Edit: In particular, the Discordant Crusader archetype may be fitting.

I'm honestly not a big fan of Path of War for PbP games. The Stances and Maneuvers system is mostly a series of if/thans and interrupts that are great for tabletop when it's easy to react to enemy actions with your own immediate actions, but in PbP it requires a lot more time and often retcons as well. That's also why AoO builds have a hard time in PbP. The format doesn't handle reactive actions easily. It's a personal preference thing, but Path of War also has a lot of Anime flavor built into it, which is fine for some games, but for most standard Pathfinder fantasy it feels off thematically.

For alternate combat systems I much prefer Spheres of Might, both in terms of mechanical fit for PbP and thematic feel.

You're right that the Discordant Crusader fits Marcus' themes well though. If this were a gestalt game I think I'd give it a try.

Yeah, heavy use of immediate actions can be troublesome. Golden Lion in particular can be rather gruesome... but then, so can Marshal's 'Advance'. I tend to predetermine whether I'd use something or not, based on the information I have, and adjust (hopefully quickly!) on the fly to what the DM has done that I didn't expect. Thus far, it's been pretty successful, but I'd be terrified of trying to use a lot of Golden Lion stuff in PbP. It's super strong, but waiting until someone else can post their 'extra' turn, so you can finish your turn is kind of a nightmare for time crunch, and I would -hate- to take control of someone's token and move them, as I'd forever blame myself if anything bad happened to them as a result... so time crunch would be a serious problem with Golden Lion for me. :P

Luckily, for now, I've only really got one immediate to worry about, and that's actually a boost.

Though, ironically, I also am an AoO monster thanks to Mythic Combat Reflexes in the other game I use path of war in. Mythic makes AoOs work in play by post, which is pretty nice.

@Harrow Sounds good to me, thanks.

I've been looking into some mundane adventuring gear and here is what I've picked up so far:

That's what I have so far but I'm open to suggestions from anyone.

Busy weekend. Will try to post tomorrow morning.

@Lyon, and anyone else that cares:

It's probably more verbose than it needs to be, but I wanted to explain my stance on this kind of thing.

For caravan work I was trying to have her do just general manual labor, so untrained work. I invested in Linguistics, (K)Society, and (K)Engineering to try and show that she'd have a good education being upper class but do you think that will be enough for down time or should I invest in something like a craft or profession so I could make real items for the group?

Well, if you can see Lyon spending her time doing white-collar work (paperwork, politics, management, education, etc.), then sure! Having Knowledges and languages and social skills is very useful for performing less-physical labor.

If you want to just be doing physical or manual labor, the roll I would use to represent the quality of your work is a Constitution check, to show how long you can continue without needing a break. Of course, you won't really need to roll for it, but just in case you want to write about it.

If an ability has the target of "One allied creature" can I use it on myself?

I am asking because of Warning Roar, People on the forums seem to agree that you are your own ally but warning myself of an incoming attack seems odd.

Also I just noticed I forgot to add the +2 from silver tongues to bluff so Lyon's bluff is now 1 instead of -1.

Well I'm certainly not seeing anything just now. XD

Bronze star for the 100th post goes to the monstrous DM who totally doesn't get stars, because that's cheating.

If an ability has the target of "One allied creature" can I use it on myself?

I am asking because of Warning Roar, People on the forums seem to agree that you are your own ally but warning myself of an incoming attack seems odd.

I believe that the intent is "no", especially since the other maneuver that you have explicitly says "Target: You or ally"