GM Granta's War for the Crown (Inactive)

Game Master Granta

This is the announcement and archive thread. Only the GM should post here, so that it remains easy to search for information.

CHARACTER CREATION

• Ability Scores: 20 point buy, maximum 20 after age and race
  
• Races: core only (including options in Advanced Race Guide)
  
• Classes: barbarian, bard, bloodrager (including spells), cleric, fighter, inquisitor (including spells), monk, oracle, paladin, *ranger*, rogue, sorcerer, wizard
  
• Archetypes: Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Combat, and Ultimate Magic
  
• Traits: Ultimate Campaign and War for the Crown Player's Handbook only, two (one campaign), plus optional third (with drawback)
  
• Hit Points: maximum at first level, then roll (minimum Constitution modifier +1)
  
• Starting Gold: class average *maximum*
  
• Story Feats: Story feats are legal, and each PC gains a bonus story feat at first level. Prerequisites apply.
  
• Teamwork Feats: Teamwork feats from Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Combat, and Ultimate Magic are legal, and each PC gains a bonus teamwork feat at 2nd, 8th and 14th level. Prerequisites apply.
  
• Background Skills: no, but everybody gets maximum ranks in one Craft or Profession *Perform* skill
  
• Other Skills: Each Profession will have two associated skills. It can be used *rolled* in place of those skills at a -2 penalty. For example, Profession (herbalist) would include some proficiency at Heal and Knowledge (nature).
  
• Alignment: any
  
• Equipment: Each PC gains a free musical instrument or artisan's tools associated with their free Craft or Perform skill. May be upgraded to masterwork at character creation by paying the difference.
  
• Spells: Core plus communal and greater versions of core spells.
  
• Unrestricted Books: Core Rulebook and Ultimate Equipment
  
• Restricted Books: Advanced Player's Guide, Ultimate Campaign, [i]Ultimate Combat, and Ultimate Magic
  
• Forbidden Books: Occult Adventures, Pathfinder Unchained, and anything soft cover
  
• By Permission: archetypes, feats, and spells not previously listed, but only from hardcover books.

DOWNTIME

The specifics of this may change, but the general principles will hold. Each time you level up, you will get two days of free time per level, i.e. four days when you reach level two. The story line will frequently not allow for that though, so the days will be held in reserve until it makes sense. Most likely, you will not have any free time until the end of book one, at which point you will have eighteen days to play with.

This time can be used to craft magical or mundane items, retrain, research unique spells, pull off a heist, etc. At the end of that time, you can ask for another day (again and again if desired). However, at the end of each day I will roll a percentile die to see if there is a random encounter. There won't be any treasure or experience for these combats though, they are just a risk to balance the reward of additional downtime--and perhaps a chance to practice your strategy and teamwork. Each day the percentile chance will increase, and each encounter the CR will increase--though both reset once the campaign resumes.

Grand Duke: Rules a prefecture and answers directly to the grand prince; because this is one of the few titles strictly defined by the land it is tied to, Taldor is limited to 62 grand dukes: 12 who wield real power (sometimes referred to as grand high dukes) and 50 lesser grand dukes (unofficially referred to as nominal grand dukes).

Governor: Appointed by the crown to rule a province; most are also nominal grand dukes.

Duke: Typically rules a duchy within a prefecture; dukes who serve a grand duke directly without governing lands are called attending dukes.

Senator: Votes in the senate; must have a noble rank.

Marquess: Guards a large wilderness estate or border region, such as those in the wild prefectures of Verduran or the World's Edge Mountains; generally looked down upon as uncouth, backwater nobility, but often command impressive military resources to defend against invaders or monsters.

Count/Earl: Rules a county (large tract of land and people within a duchy); counts and earls argue frequently over who holds dominion over the other.

Landgrave: Administrates a nonwilderness tract of land that lacks a settlement (such as canals, isolated farms, ranching lands, trade roads, etc.); theoretically the equal of a marquess, but in reality far less prestigious, as landgraves lack the military power a marquess wields.

Baron: Rules a barony (large swath of land with up to a dozen communities) or sometimes a single major city, or else an unlanded advisor to the crown.

Baronet: Assist a baron in administering the baron's lands; baronets are rarely landed themselves.

Viscount: Administrates a swath of land within a county, traditionally including two towns and the lands between them.

Tribune: Oversees a community, functioning as its mayor and judge; technically an elected position, but almost always a title granted in exchange for political favors; usually answer to a baron.

Lord: Holds and rules specific lands; usually a knight; normally answers to a baron rather than a viscount.

Knight: The lowest noble rank in Taldor, though many overlapping ranks and titles exist within "knight," including elector, esquire, and patrician; newly awarded nobles almost always begin at this rank (especially those who achieve the rank through military service); likewise, the children of noble families who've yet to prove themselves often begin as knights.

PRIMOGENITURE

There is a lot of vagueness and inconsistency in the published material, so I'm going to make a GM ruling: primogeniture applies only to the title of Grand Prince, and women in Taldor are not noticeably more oppressed than in other countries.

I know, that makes no sense given what you've read in the player's guide, but it is the only thing that makes sense otherwise. 1/3 of senators and 5/12 of Grand Dukes are female. That means women in Taldor hold more power than in any real country I know of.

Also, neither the AP nor Taldor, The First Empire mentions a single cultural or systemic abuse or mistreatment of women. As far as I can tell, the whole feminist story line was a last minute addition to the Taldan lore--and it causes way more problems than it solves, so it's out.

Each time a page fills up in the Discussion thread, we will compile links to posts that we might want to remember later.

AP Planning (p. 7-8)

AP Planning (p. 3-4)

AP Planning (p. 11-12)

AP Planning (p. 1-2)

Partial Starvation and Thirst

After one day with some food and water, but not enough, a character must make a Constitution check at the start of each day (DC 10, +1 for each previous check) or become fatigued. Fatigued characters who fail this check become exhausted. Exhausted characters who fail this check take 1d6 points of nonlethal damage. Characters that take an amount of nonlethal damage equal to their total hit points begin to take lethal damage instead.

Fatigue, exhaustion, and nonlethal damage from thirst or starvation cannot be recovered until the character gets sufficient food or water—not even magic heals these conditions or damage.

Familiars Without Speech

Familiars without any known languages or speak with master have limited communication abilities. They are restricted to the same list of commands as animal companions are under the Handle Animal skill. However, because of their greater intelligence, they know all tricks without needing to be trained.

Additionally, 2-3 commands can be chained together as one. For example, an animal companion could only be told to seek, whereas a familiar could be told to seek and guard.

Addendum to Familiars Without Speech

When the master learns a language by putting a rank in Linguistics, the familiar learns that same language, as much as possible. Generally, it will only be able to understand, not speak, the language.

Buckeye Leaves

Players earn buckeye leaves for exceptional play, and can use them as an immediate action to lessen the effect of lethal attacks. Multiple leaves can be used at the same time, and the costs are as follows:

HP Damage: 1 leaf per 4 hit points reduced
Ability Damage: 1 leaf per 2 ability points reduced
Ability Drain: 1 leaf per ability point reduced
Saving Throw: 1 leaf per 2 points die roll increased

This is not a healing effect and cannot be used to reduce more damage than was received on the killing attack. Increasing a saving throw to 20 counts as if a natural 20 was rolled. Other characters may contribute leaves if the effected character does not have enough, but each character must use their own immediate action.

For the purposes of using a whetstone, a blade is any weapon from the axe, light blade, or heavy blade weapon groups, or that has "blade" in its description.