There are places where the boundaries between worlds grow thin. Circles of standing stones erected in times immemorial, forgotten glades of profoundly eerie beauty, and desolate windswept moors. What one might not expect however, is for one of these places to be at a lonely intersection surrounded by corn fields in southwest Kansas. From the north, west, and east, Junction 27 is perfectly normal. The southern road, which nobody can ever remember going down, leads to Crossroads, a city unlike any other. The prosperity of post-Great War America has been magnified by the countless realms that lead to Crossroads. It is here that bastard children of demigods and disgraced angels share tables at mafia-run speakeasies whose doors are guarded by pinstripe-suited minotaurs. For whatever reason, you’ve found yourselves here, at the Obelisk Lounge on a rather fateful Thursday night.
Characters will begin at level 5 using a 20 point buy or the standard rolling method of six sets of 4d6, dropping the lowest number. Given the nature of the setting, I’ll allow most races and all Paizo content, along with Spheres of Power content and other 3pp on a case-by-case basis, as long as you can give me a link to the rules. Finally, players may take templates or play a monster, so long as the CR remains the same and the general power level is reasonable. Characters will have two traits, one must be a campaign trait as detailed in the next spoiler. The various campaign traits also have character creation impacts.
I’ll also be using Auto Bonus Progression, Background skills, guns everywhere, and feat tax rules. Finally, I’ll be using a scaling armor bonus system to reflect the increased prevalence of firearms.
Wrong Turn:
You took a wrong turn while driving along a road in Kansas, and ended up in Crossroads. After convincing yourself you’re not in an elaborate hallucination and realizing there’s no way to get back, you’ve now been forced to deal with the wildly unfamiliar place you’ve found yourself in. You gain a +1 bonus on will saves, this bonus increases to +2 against obviously supernatural sources. You must be human to select this trait, and any class without magical or supernatural abilities is appropriate.
Crossroads Seeker:
Somehow, you became aware of the city of Crossroads and set yourself to finding it. After a while of searching, you’ve finally found it and have set yourself to uncovering it’s mysteries. You gain a +1 bonus on knowledge (arcana) and (planes) checks, and one of these becomes a class skill. You must be human to select this trait, and magic classes are appropriate for it.
Local:
You’re either born and raised in Crossroads, or have lived there for a while. You know many of the ins and outs of the city. You gain a +1 on knowledge (local) checks and sense motive, and they become class skills. Any race and class will work with this trait.
Stranger:
You aren’t from around here. You’re so not from around here, you might not even have a concept of around here. You’re from another realm entirely, here on whatever reasons you might’ve had to come to Crossroads. You gain a +2 bonus on saves vs. mind-affecting effects. Any race and class is suited, especially for stranger character concepts.
High Roller:
You’ve been born and raised in the upper crust of Crossroads, and the glitz and glamor of the city’s elite is nothing new to you. You’re well-acquainted with the rich and powerful, and know how to handle them. You gain a +1 on diplomacy and knowledge (nobility) checks, and one of these becomes a class skill. Any race and class is appropriate.
Private Investigator:
You’ve been hot on the trail of a string of disappearances in southwest Kansas. Your investigations lead you to Junction 27, and intentionally or not, you ended up in Crossroads. You gain a +1 on perception and sense motive checks, and one of these becomes a class skill. Only humans may take this trait, and non-magic classes are most appropriate.
Setting details can be found in this document.
This game will take after noir mystery stories set in the 20s, full of crime, intrigue, mafiosos, corruption, and dark, rainy nights. As such, it’ll be fairly roleplay-heavy.
I’ll keep recruitment open for two weeks until the 24th, though I may extend it based on interest.
Sounds interesting. We'll see how I do on rolling:
= 7
= 14
= 12
= 13
= 7
= 13
Wow, that's pretty low. I guess it's a 20 point buy for me. :)
Dotting - will read the setting
Very interested, I love homebrews set on Earth.
Would you be willing to allow a monster of a higher CR if they were hampered with a Template such as Young or Degenerate to be equal or less than CR 5? As we advance in level, could one then discard that template instead of leveling properly?
Many concepts immediately sprang to mind (most are monster races), but the reason I ask is specifically for a Mothman PC who came to Crossroads as an omen of looming disaster years ago and found they couldn't leave.
As another question, could the Private Eye be a human with a template that was applied after arriving in Crossroads? I was also considering a Tulpa templated Investigator that accidentally created an alternate personality within themself upon their arrival (or perhaps was created as a dark reflection of another PC)
I'm a sucker for rolled stats.
-1=12
-1=10
-1=6
-2=15
-3=14
-3=17
Oof. That 6 is going to be a problem. Hmm. I'll look at some possibilities. Would you allow Dreamscared psionics? I'm specifically interested in the soulknife
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Good to see you Zanbabe! Hope you're doing well.
The Lobster: I'm going to say no to reducing CR through templates, on account of most higher CR monsters having abilities and SLAs that would also need to be scaled down. A Tulpa would be counted as the Stranger trait in my eyes, as tulpa are inherently supernatural. If you're selected I may make a few tweaks to the template, but the one edit I'll make out the gate is that the tulpa doesn't gain any inherent ability boosts.
Ouchitonian: DSP Psionics is fine by me.
I'm presently considering an ex mafia enforcer tooth fairy barbarian or swashbuckler (or both?), focusing on dirty tricks, who would steal the teeth and break the kneecaps of people who didn't pay their protection money and is currently having a crisis of conscience.
Don't know why yet a fey would experience moral doubt given their total embrace of chaos, but I'll figure it out.
this looks interesting. so for firearms rules, would it be advanced firearms and guns are everywhere? nvm. i see it now.
- 1 = 6
- 1 = 16
- 1 = 18
- 1 = 15
- 1 = 8
- 2 = 14
[18, 16, 15, 14, 8, 6] - Hmm, will see what I can do.
Maybe a stupid question, but are firearms Martial, simple or exotic weapons?
Dotting for thought
Dotting for interest.
Toying with a few different ideas. Can I get an approval ruling on the Dreamlands Cat, Ghoulish Creature Template, and Vampire Template?
Maybe a stupid question, but are firearms Martial, simple or exotic weapons?
With Guns everywhere they are simple, and advanced firearms are widespread.
Waskallay: That should be fine.
Yorick: I’m going to say no to the Dreamlands cat, but yes to the ghoul and the vampire, provided neither is too disruptive/destructive.
A bit of a general announcement, I’ll likely only be selecting one especially out-there concept, and ideally selecting one of each campaign trait.
^
^
o_o
You can do your name credit with these scores, make the most badass brawler.
GM, with the presence of skeletons and vampires, would you allow the Deathless Ghost?
It was also reviewed by Endzeitgeist, fwiw.
11
16
16
14
8
14
13
14
18
14
10
10
This is Mallory. I am considering some sort of hitman for the gangsters as a concept.
Not bad rolls at all
Not the GM, obviously, but this is covered in the document, page 34. I can't copy it on my phone but essentially you trade out Finesse Training for Deft Maneuvers, and gain DEX to Damage throughout a whole Fighter Weapons Group
Feat tax rules can be found here. Starting wealth will be one level lower to account for auto bonus progression, so 6000 GP.
Sure do.
15
15
11
10
14
15
A decent spread, I might revive a favorite old concept of mine for this.
I'm thinking about a half-fey template Human who owns a bookshop on Main Street who is reknowned for being able to locate books on any subject and of any scarcity whether they exist or not.
*** This is Pathfinder 1 correct. Didn't see that specified anywhere***
15
13
14
12
15
13
Nice Spread!
I'll work on what class she'll play as the Level Adjustment is +2, and she'll have to start with the "Local" Trait
Working on a Tiefling UMonk local to Crossroads
Do monster PC's start with their default array should we roll/point buy?
Just in case:
In reading up a bit more on the subject, I like the method of subtracting 10 to find the racial adjustments, and then rolling the rest. Keeps the monster's stats relevant but also provides a bit more uniqueness.
but... you don't find a PC's racial adjustments by subtracting 10 and monsters are meant to compete with PCs, so while they clearly didn't roll for individual stats for monsters and then adjust them racially, it's pretty clear they didn't just start with 10. otherwise the common orc's stats would be 14, 10, 10, 8, 8, 8. but the common orc's stats are actually 17, 11, 12, 7, 8, 6. subtracting 10 would give you +7 Str, +1 Dex, +2 Con, -3 Int, -2 Wis, -4 Cha. those aren't the orc racial adjustments.
i'm pretty sure they start each monster with the standard array for NPCs which is 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8. So the common orc started with 13, 11, 12, 9, 10, 8 which was then adjusted by racial mods. so you'd subtract the standard array, but you'd just kind of have to guess where they put each value.
so to use The Lobster's tooth fairy as an example, they have 5, 14, 9, 8, 15, 14. first, we add 6 Str and subtract 4 Dex for size modifiers. then, racial adjustments are always even numbers, so 13, 11, and 9, go in Str, Con, and Wis while 12, 10, and 8, go to the other three.
11-11=0
10-10=0
9-9=0
8-8=0
15-13+2
14-12+2
tooth fairies have +2 Wis, +2 Cha for racial adjustments (the "Flexible" option in the race creation guide) and -6 Str, +4 Dex for their size.
also, not sure if you knew since most people link to the original EitR article as you did, but they refined those rules and put them in a PDF. there's a link at the site you posted, but it's easy to miss.
https://michaeliantorno.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/The-Elephant-in-the- Room-Feat-Taxes-in-Pathfinder.pdf
Zahir: I'd say that it would.
Hm, I may have found something that settles the question of monster ability scores. Using this source from the bestiary, it looks like monsters with class level would roll or buy their stats as normal, but receive +4/+4/+2/+2/+0/-2 to distribute as they see fit.
This seems to me like a reasonable compromise between doing the calculation of stat boosts and using the stats as written.
While that is possible, it'd be an obvious attempt to game the system, and set you back a level or two to adjust for the CR of the new "human" monster.
I'm going to be using the arrayed stat boosts, as it keeps the numbers well rounded and less of a headache for me.
If it does become a problem, it'll be something to reassess once I've made selections. The exact mechanics, at least during submissions, come second to the character's story.
Sorry to keep adding to the confusion but I really wouldn't feel comfortable playing on that statline, it just makes my character too powerful.
Below are five versions of my stats with different interpretations of adjustments applied.
Number Sets:
10 18 16 14 14 13
-5 +4 -1 -2 +5 +4
05 22 15 12 19 17
-10 to evens, -11 to odds to Tooth Fairy:
10 18 16 14 14 13
-6 +4 -2 -2 +4 +4
04 22 14 12 18 17
kekyll's set:
10 18 16 14 14 13
-6 +4 00 00 +2 +2
04 22 16 14 16 15
New set:
10 18 16 14 14 13
-2 +4 +4 00 +2 +2
08 22 20 14 16 15
New set with size modifier (Tiny):
10 18 16 14 14 13
-6 +8 +4 -2 +2 +2
04 26 20 12 16 15
So the first three sets have very little different about them in terms of power, but then the next two are noticeably more powerful. With 4/4/2/2/0/-2 as a compromise position, I question the benefit of applying as a human or a CRB race at all?
Ultimately, however, I say we just put a hold on it. I will build a character on the new statline and if chosen, I would like to resume this discussion before gameplay begins
EDIT:
Everything I had to add was already said by Zahir and the GM, all this post contributes is numbers.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I hadn't thought about doing -10 to evens and -11 to odds. That seems to be a pretty decent method. It keeps the numbers round enough while also maintaining the identity of the monster.
Let's use that going forward. I've struck out what I wrote on the last post for clarity's sake.
-10/-11 is definitely the best way to get "quick stats" for monsters. you end up with two bonuses slightly high and two slightly low (because the standard array has two +1s and two -1s) but it's probably the closest to the actual racial mods without the headache of all my calculations (which i am honestly happy to do for any monster race because i enjoy it btw). also, this method doesn't make me feel bad for wanting to play a human.
Okay, I have an idea now. Normally, I just take a 20 point buy when it's available, but I suppose I should roll and see...
That's actually pretty solid... Now I just have to make the part of my brain that hates how many repeated numbers I have shut the hell up.
I think I’m going to go with a gun-wielding Eldritch Archer Magus. It’s a concept I’ve had for a while but never gotten to run. Haven’t decided a race yet.
Before...
My first thought was... make a Winchester. So, I started making a "hunter" as a Sanctified Slayer Inquisitor (mixed with a little Trench Fighter) with a Colt. But, then I remembered it was Mary's family who were hunters while the Winchesters were Men of Letters. So, now the "hunter" is a Campbell. But how to make a 1920s Winchester? I'm thinking Archivist Bard that uses Oration as his perform skill. Anyone got any other ideas?
Here is my character submission for The Crossroads campaign, "Dorian", an advanced gray. The gray choose Dorian as his name because his people evolved past the need for names millennia ago, and the lesser races feel a need to have a name for everything.
Is their anything else you need for a submission, Coyote?
Well, I’d like a backstory on how Dorian came to live in Crossroads.
Well, I’d like a backstory on how Dorian came to live in Crossroads.
Added to character sheet.
What is the pantheon like?
Still have room? If so, this seems super interesting so: ⚫
Chyrone: My idea for the pantheon is that every religion, whether from Earth or another dimension, can grant powers to its followers and is, essentially, correct. How exactly isn’t known but everyone seems to talk to their preferred god or gods and end up in the afterlife they think they will.
How are we doing HP? Rolled? Average?