Hi guys,
I'm starting this thread and we'll see where it goes. I plan on running one of the adventures from a set of solo one shots by Expoditious Retreat. The setting is still to be chosen, but will likely be Homebrew/Golarian as I know some of the Golarian lore and like a lot of the stuff, but I simply don't have a full campaign setting ready to go and it's so big that there's no way for me not to be overriding things if I try to be in a Golaian setting. I hate doing that do we'll probably be doing homebrew, but allowing all the Golarian stuff refavored as needed to maintain a cohesive world. A world that I hope the players will help in creating.
Anyways this is the start. I'll be doing updates and answering questions.
How I do things
- Goolge slides for maps
- Milestone leveling
- Hero points will be awarded for great role play and for overcoming big fights.
- Magic item availability will be somewhat limited. Potions and scrolls will be generally avaiable in towns, wands less so. Enchanted items will be mostly given as loot or as commissioned, but getting "materials" or "services" may require side questing a bit. If you're build absolutely requires a specific item or enchantment let me know and we can work it in, but in general expect to work with what you find.
Your first level is done as normal with full hit points. The .5 level works this way. You will declare your next class level, and you get the following:
- Saves as if you are level 2
- Half your skill points (rounded down)
- Half your hit average points (rounded down)
All other features (including favored class bonuses) will be gained when the characters reach level 2.
So for clarity here is an example of a fighter with a DEX, CON and INT of 12 declaring his next level also being fighter.
Hit points: 11+ (6.5/2) = 14.25 > 14
Saves: 3:1:1 + 1:0:0 = 4:1:1
Skill Points: 3 + (3/2) = 4.5 > 4
Here's the same fighter but declaring his second level as rogue.
Hit points: 11+ (5.5/2) = 13.25 > 13
Saves: 3:1:1 + 0:2:0 = 3:2:1
Skill Points: 3 + (7/2) = 6.5 > 6
- Starting level as described above
- Starting wealth 300gp plus average for class at level 1
- 25 point buy
- No ability final scores above 18 or lower than 8
- Core races strongly prefered. If you want a character with a more exotic race be sure to justify it well.
- 3 traits, or 1 trait and 1 extra skill feat (skill focus or a feat like Alertness or Magical Aptitude). No drawbacks. Be sure to tie your traits into your backstory and role play. These should be a part of who your character is. If you take the extra feat instead try to do the same.
- Background Skills used
- Factional advancement used for multiclassing
- Only unchained summoners
- Variant multiclassing is allowed
- All Paizo material is allowed. However if a build is too cheezy, or complicated I may veto it. Check with me if you aren't sure.
- No 3rd party material allowed, sorry.
This is going to be an E8 World. For the one shot that I'll commit to at the start that probably won't mean much, but if we do go forward adding to this as a full campaign that will become more important.
This is going to be a game for 2 players, 3 tops. Expect your character to have to cover multiple roles.
Since this is going to be a one shot, at least initially it's note really fair for me to require a long protracted background. That said I love having good solid character concepts. Here's a quick background system I'd like to see. If that's too much just a sketch of the character will do.
Step 2: List two goals for the character that you, as a player, think would be cool to see accomplished in-game. During any session in which you take positive action to achieve that goal, I will award you an action point that can only be used in scenes furthering that goal. These Action Points are separate from the action points you gain by resting and reaching milestones. You can change goals later, though you lose all the accumulated Action Points for the goal you abandoned.
Step 3: List two secrets about your character. One is a secret the character knows, one is a secret that involves him but that he is not actually aware of yet. This will help me in creating plots that center around your character. I will also be creating a third secret which you as a player will not be aware of, so expect some surprises!
Step 4: Describe three people that are tied to the character though blood, romance or honor. Two of them are friendly to the character, one is hostile. All can do something useful for[PERSONAL TIES[ you, if you can get the situations to line up. If you like, you can include an enemy of yours here as well, so I have an instant NPC nemesis to throw at you.
Step 5: Describe three memories that your character has. They don't have to be elaborate, but they should provide some context and flavor.
CORE CONCEPTS:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
APPEARANCE
GOALS:
Character Goals
1.
2.
Player Goals
1.
2.
SECRETS:
Character's Secrets
1.
2.
Secrets Kept from Character
1.
2.
PERSONAL TIES
1.
2.
3.
MEMORIES
1.
2.
3.
WRITING SAMPLE
I know you guys, so this should just be a scene to give me a feel for your character, not truly a sample of how you write.
Outline of a Build Plan
This isn't set in stone, but a general idea is nice.
For this campaign E8 means basically this, but going to level 8 before switching to a feat only progression. PDF Outlining E6
I really like E6! Or E8 as you will run it. It gives room to grow while still keeping characters grounded. It does seem true that 1-5 is gritty realism while 6-10 is heroic fantasy.
“In E6, the stats of an average person are the stats of a 1st-level commoner. Like their medieval counterparts, this person has never travelled more than a mile from their home. Imagine a 6th-level Wizard or 6th-level Fighter from the commoner’s perspective. The wizard could kill everyone in your village with a few words. The fighter could duel with ten armed guards in a row and kill every one of them. If you spot a manticore, everyone you know is in terrible, terrible danger. Against such a creature, the wizard or fighter may be your only hope. E6 recognizes that 6th level characters are mortal, while providing a context where they are epic heroes“
Im giving this some thought...
Another prospective player brought up another question regarding E8, items with higher caster levels. I'm open to thoughts . My initial swag is that the creation feats would be only available based on "effective level" (so level 8 plus three feat only levels before you can take a creation feat like craft staff) and for caster level to so the actual creation you do something like a ritual with cooperative crafting and "soecial components" that make up for caster levels or something like that.
Either way items of high power like that will be very rare and special unique items. As heros you may encounter such items, but they won't be in every major city for sale to the highest bidder.
So...for our little band of three want to have a party theme?
Group of knights (cavaliers/Paladins/swashbucklers/etc)
Nature themed (rangers/hunters/druids/shifters)
Religious Order
Draconic descendants
Witch Coven
Thieves guild
Etc?
Fyi, I have updated the campaign thread with the start to the campaign.
That's a fascinating ruleset. Thanks for the invite btw. I'd probably make a reformed bandit, rogue/fighter. I'll have to meditate on the details, probably won't have any concrete details until Sunday.
If needed I can make something else to cover.
Recently, gnolls raided the town of Rhiannon. Mayor Fellstone and his fellow citizens were outraged, and thus formed a party from the town’s surviving guards to track the creatures back to their lair so that it might be assaulted. To their surprise and grief, the tracks led to Lord Kent’s keep. Mayor Fellstone realizes that Lord Kent, the ruler of the region, cannot be brought to justice by usual means. Resigned, the town began the slow process of reconstruction. Still, the villagers wonder why the young lord would do such a thing, and the mayor wonders why the creatures stole his old journals, books, and maps.
However an opportunity has presented itself. Lord Kent has announced a tournament at his keep, inviting those of “all walks of life with a propensity for the gambling arts.” Contestants shall stay at his keep for four days, and regularly compete . Mayor Fellstone, hearing word of the open invitation to the gambling tournament, has devised a plan of his own. He means to learn Lord Kent’s motives for sending raiders to Rhiannon and see some of the town’s treasures returned. Thus, he seeks out the PCs and asks them to infiltrate Lord Kent’s keep under the guise of a legitimate contestant.
Now, the draw, so to speak, is Lord Kent’s tournament for those of the “gambling art.” Which to me speaks towards a sneakier type of PC.
So if there is to be any kind of theme I’d say that it should be around that.
That's up to you guys. I did put out a few more invitations to folks I've played with. Glad to see you made it Delmoth.
The original adventure is written for a solo level 2 to 4 rogue. I'll adjust it a bit as needed so you you don't have to be rogues if you don't want to. After this initial part we'll see where it goes. I tend to like large heroic style adventures.
I should also explain how long the initial one shot runs. You'll become proper level 2 characters at 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through. After that who knows.
Ok...I think I know what I will do. Grumbaki here. Backstory incoming, but would prefer to link it to party before going in too deep.
Race: Demon Spawn Tiefling
* Outsider Native
* Stats: +2 Str +2 Cha -2 Int
* Darkvision: 60 ft
* Beguiling Liar: +4 Bluff
* Fiendish Resistance: Tieflings have cold resistance 5, electricity resistance 5, and fire resistance 5.
* +2 Cha
Traits
* Fiend Blood (+1 Bluff and Class Skill)
* Trustworthy (+1 Diplomacy and Class Skill)
* Steadfast Personality (Add your Charisma modifier instead of your Wisdom bonus on Will saves against mind-affecting effects. If you have a Wisdom penalty, you must apply both your Wisdom penalty and your Charisma modifier.)
Stats
Str (18) Dex (14) Con (13) Int (10) Wis (10) Cha (18) HP (15) AC (18/16/16) Fort (+4) Ref (+5) Will (+0/+4 vs mind affecting) Initiative (+2) CMD (19)
Feats
Lvl 1: Improved Unarmed Strike, Dragon Style, Stunning Fist, Armor of the Pit
Skills
* Bluff 1 SP: +13
* Diplomacy 1 SP: +9
* Stealth 1 SP: +6
* Perception 2 SP: +5
* Sense Motive: 1 SP: +4
* Profession Gambler 1 SP: +4
* Sleight of Hand 2 SP: +4
Class: Scaled Fist Unchained Monk VMC Magus
* AC Bonus (When unarmored and unencumbered, the monk adds his Charisma bonus (if any) to his AC and CMD. In addition, a monk gains a +1 bonus to AC and CMD at 4th level. This bonus increases by 1 for every four monk levels thereafter, up to a maximum of +5 at 20th level. These bonuses to AC apply even against touch attacks or when the monk is flat-footed. He loses these bonuses when he is immobilized or helpless, when he wears any armor, when he carries a shield, or when he carries a medium or heavy load.)
* Flurry of Blows (At 1st level, a monk can make a flurry of blows as a full-attack action. When making a flurry of blows, the monk can make one additional attack at his highest base attack bonus. This additional attack stacks with the bonus attacks from haste and other similar effects. When using this ability, the monk can make these attacks with any combination of his unarmed strikes and weapons that have the monk special weapon quality. He takes no penalty for using multiple weapons when making a flurry of blows, but he does not gain any additional attacks beyond what’s already granted by the flurry for doing so. (He can still gain additional attacks from a high base attack bonus, from this ability, and from haste and similar effects).)
Interesting, a lawful monk who is a gambler. I look forward to seeing how you address bucking the usual stereotype.
One thing to note, I don't want to use the variant abilities for tieflings and aaismar. It allows for really wild swings in power, and that makes it hard to keep the race in line with the core races which are the preferred choices.
Damn. Forgot all about that alignment restriction. Well...I’ll give it some more thought. Have the basic concept of what I’m looking for, but will think this over. And maybe if someone else posts in the meantime it’ll spark some creativity on my part.
Feel free to reflavor. As far as campaign traits go, I'm fine with them as long as they are not too overpowered. We'll discuss those on a case by case basis. I'll have to look more at twinned summoner. I look forward to seeing more :)
For me, I’ll be making some kind of Aether Kineticist. With the focus on Kinetic Finesse for ranged sleight of hand and disable device. I’m working on the details out.
Also, Mordred, I will (likely) he going for Rakshasa Tiefling. If you’d like to link backstories at all, please do so.
Very nice MordredofFairy. I will spend some time today looking it all over for any pitfalls, but my initial scan looked like everything was ok. I was a bit leery about an eidolon taking additional traits, but it's obvious that it's for building the concept and not a power grab.
To the three of you (that's all from my selctive list that had time, good players know not to become overcommitted) I suggest coordinating builds, even if character wise they PC's aren't tied together before the start of an adventure. That way you'll be able to build a balanced mini party.
Profile is up. Put a lot of thought into it, but couldn’t find a way to make anything but a human work for this build. Which is too bad, but oh well.
Aether Kineticist, who upon lvl2 will be able to use sleight of hand and disable device at range. Which is the big draw for me. The GM let me take the trait Trap Finder, so he fulfills the normal rogue role.
Add to that and he will have good Stealth, decent Perception, and decent Diplomacy/Bluff. Nothing to write home about, but enough to hopefully let him talk his way out of bad situations. Also took linguistics, just in case we need to forge a document or two.
*Edit* Added Kinetic Chirurgeon archetype. It severely lowers damage potential, but the party needs a healer. So seemed like a must-have.
CORE CONCEPTS:
1. Kasit grew up to a poor Varisian single-mother. Became a pickpocket as a child so as to not starve. In city (whatever nearby large city is in campaign setting)
2. As he grew older, he fell in with a street gang. Went from pickpocketing to burglary.
3. Telekinesis began manifesting at puberty, and wasn’t truly controllable until late teens. It wasn’t until he was 19 that he learned that he could heal the injured.
4. Fled the city when a burglary went wrong, and a friend of his killed the man who lived there. The watch caught his friend and he skipped town before they could pick him up.
5. He has wandered ever since. He goes from town to town as a traveling healer, and uses his telekinesis to steal from those he helps. He uses his role as a healer to avoid suspicion.
APPEARANCE
1. See profile picture. Roughly 5’7, slight build. Has relied on his telekinesis too much to ever need to rely on anything else.
GOALS:
Character Goals
1. Money. He wants to earn enough, through effort, deceit or otherwise, to no longer need to wander and steal. He would also like to eventually bring his mother out of poverty, though that would require returning home...
2. To develop his telekinesis. It is the one thing that makes him feel unique. He wants to know where it comes from, and what it’s limits are.
Player Goals
1. To be more than a one-shot
2. To actually get to use telekinetic finesse...lvl 1.5 doesn’t allow it :(
SECRETS:
Character's Secrets
1. He is wanted in City X, for his part in the burglary gone wrong.
2. When he fled City X, he left his mother behind. His guilt from this eats away at him.
Secrets Kept from Character
1. His telekinesis and darkvision is because of Div blood that runs in his family.
2. His father had the same powers that he did. His reliance on said powers got him killed. His mother hoped that he wouldn’t follow the same path.
PERSONAL TIES
1. Alina: Kasit’s mother. A seamstress by trade, who barely gets by. She gave him a non-Varisian name in the hope that it would lessen prejudice against him.
2. Ionacu: Leader of his former street gang. A half-orc brawler who Kasit grew up fearing.
3. Zandu: The son of the man who was murdered during the burglary gone wrong. He wanted nothing more than to kill Kasit’s companion, but had to settle for watching the execution. He is frustrated by the watch not caring enough about Kasit to search for him. Should Kasit ever return, Zandu would stop at nothing and would spare no expense, to avenge his father’s death.
MEMORIES
1. Getting caught as a child stealing food. He was beaten by the merchant, though in the man’s ‘mercy’ the guards were not called.
2. Being evicted several times due to his family’s poverty.
3. Leaving the city for the first time when fleeing the law. It was his first time seeing the wilderness.
Looks good from my scan Gumbaki. Looking forward to a background. I've been reading some of the world geography, I'll try to get something up in the next few days, but I need a good map building app for 9n my phone.
And we posted over each other. Background is up. Should give enough to explain his thieving ways, with potential plot hooks somewhere down the line should you so choose.
So here a very rough sketch of what I envision the nearby area to look like. I'll put together a proper map and plan when I get a chance, but a general description of the geography and society will get us started. Purple circles are things like cities/villiges. There will bescome other lands on the coastal side of our mini continent. (Think India but without Asia on the other side of the himilayas.
Both Mordred and Grumbaki are drawing on varisian lore, and that is a portion of Golarian that I have a bit more familiarity with, so we will make the society near at least Varisian flavored in many aspects.
Thoughts?
Don’t have access to the map, so can’t comment on that. Besides that, it sounds good. No issues here.
—-
Also, Mordred. Any way you can pick up Stealth? With a small, unarmored party, it could be really useful for us. And if down the line we pick up Stealth Synergy, we could ensure that any fights we pick will be on our terms.
Let's try that again rough sketch
Those are good assumptions. But she would be strength based, still probably unchained rogue. DPR for a single weapon rogue is still better if she's str based. I haven't run the numbers but I feel that changes if I go two weapons. If I don't have to take disable device then I am free to focus on other things, like stealth.
Well, with three of us we’d be Str based, Dex based and Cha based. A good split.
So, what kind of rapscallion do you plan to make, Delmoth? Would I be correct in guessing an Intimidate focus given the high strength?
Not to give undue influence, but the Enforcer feat is tasty. And as we can refluff traits, blade of mercy let’s you do Nonlethal slashing damage without penalty and with +1 damage.
Then combine it with Thug archetype. Which lets you make the enemy have frightened instead of shaken in exchange for trapfinding. Combined with enforcer and you’d have many scared enemies!
I’ll stop there, despite my love of character making. But just an idea that jumped to my mind when I saw “Str based rogue who doesn’t use trapfinding”
Lol, I really haven't had a lot of time to consider it. I will take your suggestions under advisement. Like I said before I won't have time to dig into creating a character until this weekend.
I will jump in here to say, the thug archetype is broken. If someone wants to use that we can, but we will modify it to be more like the intimidate skill unlock. I've seen campaigns busted by the raw thug.
I’ve actually never seen it in action before. Though I can see how it could get out of hand
It's really really easy to boost skills and there's few ways to increase your defence against intimidate. Thug basically allows you to frighten any nonimmune enemy without fail. The skill unlock at least gives a save to avoid the effect.
I took a quick peek at it. The first thing that came to mind was using it in conjunction with reach and trip. Let's see +12 modifier to intimidate form bonuses off the top of my head vs a typical DC of 12 to demoralize. I'd have to get a roll of 10 or better to frighten. Because HD will generally keep pace with my skill point investment I'd need some other mods to make it a sure bet but I'm always giving shaken. There are magic items and probably other options for that. If it works like the skill unlock and then I also unlock intimate the target would have to save twice if I'm not mistaken.
Or I can just keep trapfinding because finding traps and doing something about them are different things.
Delmoth, if you really like the thug archetype and idea we can work something. I don't want to be the "martials can't have nice things" guy. The thug should be better at frightening people that the usual person with the skill unlock, we just need to keep it balanced. I threw the skill 7nlock out there as an example, of a way to keep it balanced, but we can talk though what t should really be. Maybe a sped 7p rate for the unlock abilities, or maybe a reduced threshold for when they becomes frightened?
We'll burn that bridge when we get to it. To truly make it broken I'd have to become a one trick pony which goes against my general philosophy on making characters and goes against the general advice of cover as many bases as you can.
Ok, I've put together a better map (though it still lacks a lot of detail) and a bulletized description of this little world of ours. Let me know what you guys think. If you have thoughts or input let me know. I'd like the world to he a collaborative effort.
PS. Making world maps is HARD!
What knowledges were covered already?
Knowledges?
<laughs nervously>
lol, looks like just planes so far! So you're saying I should make a skald.
@GM BB: Can I have a score of 7 if I don't get any points for it?
Haven’t even thought about Skald/Bard, but yeah. That would be useful. And probably thematic as well for a group of rapscallions.
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Um, sure. If you want a handicap I'm not going to stop you. Just be sure you and your team are on the same page.
Edit: You can always just have an 8 and play it up. But I'm going to hold you to the 7 if you decide to go with it.
Um, sure. If you want a handicap I'm not going to stop you. Just be sure you and your team are on the same page.
Edit: You can always just have an 8 and play it up. But I'm going to hold you to the 7 if you decide to go with it.
Fantastic!
Scribe Scroll + Spell Kenning = Scrolls not normally known?
If yes great, if no then :( and archetype that trades scribe scroll away.
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Oh that's a tough one. I've argued for it in the past as a player though. I'll go for it. Given the limitations e8 puts on players it's hard to get too out of hand. You will still need to UMD any that aren't on your list as normal of course.
Spell kenning it probably my favorite ability of any class btw. So good.
Crunch is about 80% done. I have to buy gear and format it properly yet.
1.Junior is a goofball, he’ll frequently (and hopefully humorously) misinterpret things and situations.
2.Junior hears the voice of a gold coin he carries. The mercantile and mercenary Fred. This is one of two items he inherited from his orkish mother.
3.Junior thinks of himself as a hero. He tries to play up the tropes.
4.Junior is the son of a Hellknight and a weaponsmith for an orkish
tribe. Both his parents were fairly hostile to Junior but he learned valuable lessons from them both.
5.Junior is a good guy, he’s tries (and sometimes fails) to be sensitive to other people’s needs and wants. This is his rebellion against his Hellknight father.
APPEARANCE and WRITING SAMPLE
A half-ork in a purple wide brimmed fedora, an ivory shirt under a purple vest with gold trim, and glossy black breeches remains. A shortsword is sheathed on his right and a longspear is strapped to his back. A well used set of drums pokes out of his backpack. He bows with a flourish, "Junior, at your service."
After a dramatic moment Junior says while pulling a gold coin out of a small pouch on his belt, "Ah.. just a minute." He holds the coin to his head, "What?!" He pauses, "No, I was in the middle of a thing and you ruined it!" Another pause, "Alright I'll ask!"
Junior clears his throat, "Fred wants to know how much the pay for this job is."
GOALS:
Character Goals
1.To reforge Energetic Inferno, the shattered greatsword of his mother. Just to prove he could do it.
2.To publish a book of his limericks
Player Goals
1.To have a good time.
2.To expose you to some pretty terrible poetry.
SECRETS:
Character's Secrets
Junior’s a pretty open book. He’s not open about his parents but he doesn’t lie if asked.
Secrets Kept from Character
Both his parents had plans for him, his mother wanted to make a meat pie out of him once he was big enough and his father wanted to sacrifice him to Asmodeus.
PERSONAL TIES
1. Liliana Tuvol, Junior’s twin sister. A psychic who’s as dumb as a rock. Can see the future. They don’t get along, she takes after their mother, but at least they aren’t willing to murder each other. Only an occasional cannibal.
2.Vrok Tuvol, Junior’s dad. Still upset about that noble enslaving Junior before he could be sacrificed.
3.That one elf. Junior’s crush, an elf that Junior glimpsed while drinking at the Poor Sod’s tavern. Junior bought him a drink as a way to open a dialog but he left the bar before it could be delivered.
MEMORIES
1.The heat of the forge, the smoke of it, sweat on his brow. Junior’s forged a fine blade but it’s not nearly good enough to hold an enchantment. Maybe the next one.
2.There once was an ork from Cheliax
Insulting nobles behind their backs
They put him in chains
But he left through a drain
And now hunts nobles with an axe.
3.Saving a basket full of kittens from a burning orphanage. Liliana though setting fire to the orphanage was a fun practical joke.
Outline of a Build Plan
I usually wing this stuff. Probably Craft magic arms and armor.
And done crunch is in profile