JasonX's Giantslayer

Game Master JasonX

Post here first so we can resolve any character creation issues

Woot! Thanks for accepting me.

Thanks for the invite GM! :) This will be a fun one. Please let me know if you need me to make any adjustments on this character or if you have any questions. Cheers

Hey everyone, thanks a lot for accepting me! Looking forward to playing what sounds like an awesome ap and making it a memorable adventure alongside you all.

@JasonX If i may ask something, you said in the recruitment thread that you were worried the healing section wasn't very healing focussed. Were you unhappy with something in my build as well? I'm fine with altering something to be more to your wishes if so, though I'm not sure how to amp up the healing much further than the current setup and progression plan. I suppose a one level multiclass of life oracle would help the early game a lot but delays the lategame, to name one option.

Hey everyone, thanks a lot for accepting me! Looking forward to playing what sounds like an awesome ap and making it a memorable adventure alongside you all.

@JasonX If i may ask something, you said in the recruitment thread that you were worried the healing section wasn't very healing focussed. Were you unhappy with something in my build as well? I'm fine with altering something to be more to your wishes if so, though I'm not sure how to amp up the healing much further than the current setup and progression plan. I suppose a one level multiclass of life oracle would help the early game a lot but delays the lategame, to name one option.

No, I think your build was the most healing oriented of the group. I'm not sure how Shamans work, but I think that a Cleric with the Healing domain is hard to top. In this case, I don't think it will matter as two of the other characters have healing support as well, and the Aldori Defender usually needs little healing support.

Thanks for the invite GM! :) This will be a fun one. Please let me know if you need me to make any adjustments on this character or if you have any questions. Cheers

I am quite interested in seeing a Sin Monk develop. I once toyed with the idea of running one, but it never came about.

I will also be able to help with a lot of the healing, the healing, and greater version, hex are basically a free cure mod/serious for everyone once a day as we get higher level, and I get access to all of the raise/reserect/reincarnates except for breathe of life. I do not get access to the restoration chain though.

Considering who's my partner there in melee - Allistaire the Aldori - I think that I'll be the one needing the heals the most! I hope to get Agatsu some better defenses in the future but it might take me a while.

I think our party here is promising and well balanced. I don't know much about the shamans either, but if Aradesh can do the emergencies during combat and the patching in-between, we should be good. We can also dip for wands and potions if needed be but honestly I think we're fine with our composition.

How are we doing in skills? The witch is INT based and we have a rogue, the ranger is probably fairly capable on the matter too, but monk and fighter are starved in skills and I don't know much about the shaman. Maybe we could do a round check to see if we're missing anything important.

@GM: I've been dying to get this build to work. The sin monk doesn't seem strong, but it does come with some fun toys with the sin pool at level 4. I'm considering a dip in fighter, or three in barbarian, to be able to use the large sledge (via the titan archetypes, which go very well with my trait and build), but I want to be able to focus on the monk because I love the class features.

EDIT: I also like that our group is composed of two humans, a half-orc, an elf, a half-elf and a dwarf that thinks she's an elf. Very core, which for me gives a feeling of "real table" :)

No, I think your build was the most healing oriented of the group. I'm not sure how Shamans work, but I think that a Cleric with the Healing domain is hard to top. In this case, I don't think it will matter as two of the other characters have healing support as well, and the Aldori Defender usually needs little healing support.

Haha, challenge accepted!

Ironically, perhaps, my original build idea was to make a dwarven cleric with the Growth and Healing (restoration) domains who fought by enlarging himself and smacking orcs/giants around with his 20ft reach dwarven longhammer. I ended up not going that way partly because I thought that taking martial weapon proficiency at level 1 would be seen as a sign he wasn't fully committed to being a healer and/or that he might not heal enough.

@Lialda Thanks! Any help, especially at the earlier levels will be appreciated :) Shamans are actually the only class next to clerics/oracles to have breath of life and I have all the restoration spells, so we probably complement eachother nicely. Aradesh has the basic heals and channels but gets lifelink and the cauldron hex early on, along with the shaman's unique shell of succor, which is a scaling damage prevention shield. Her huge power spike in healing is at level 5 when Incredible healer comes online, and again at level 11 with the heal Heal spell and the skill unlock for the heal skill.

We should probably coordinate which of us takes what for arcane spells along the way. Starting at level 6, I can take 3 or 4 wizard spells up to spell level 5 to add to my list. I assume the four martials in the party will be happy with haste but I'm not sure on the others yet. And with spirit animals I could switch out some spells daily. I'm not very familiar with the Witch list, to be honest.

@Agatsu Good idea. Shamans have a crossover skill list between the ranger and cleric. Including background, I have 8 skillpoints per level and will probably go for craft: alchemy, diplomacy, handle animal, heal, perception, survival, knowledge: planes, knowledge: nature and spellcraft as my main 9. (I won't have full ranks in all of them since I lack 1 point/level). The only wisdom skill I lack is sense motive.

However, my familiar has her own skill ranks as well. She has the sage archetype, with an intscore of 5 + my shaman level, 2 of her own skillpoints per level, half my level to all her knowledges, can make all knowledges untrained and has all knowledge skills as class skills. So whatever knowledge skills we lack, she can provide, and she will eventually be quite good at them.

By the way, I have no idea what a sin monk is, but it sounds exciting, appropriately edgy and cool. Definitely gets style points from me just by the name.

@Everyone Should we work on potential prior relationships to eachother? In short, Aradesh is a Belkzen refugee, serves as a member of the town guard and as an apothecary at her grandmother's small alchemy store in her downtime.

@JasonX How much freedom do we have in writing our introductions? Will you introduce us as part of the story or is that open? If open, can we write interactions with NPC's connected to us in those ourselves or would you prefer we didn't?

Each of us is using a different trait from the AP, which is cool too:

Agatsu - giant-blooded, bruising intellect, dangerously curious, surprise weapon
Alistaire - giantslayer scion, defensive strategist, dominator (belkzen), dragon-hunted
Aradesh - dwarf-trained, seeker, fate's favored.
Kilien - orphaned by giants, adopted (elf) - warrior of old, deadeye bowman, magical knack (ranger)
Lialda - trunau bative, charming, spark of creation
Sylvar - vexing defender, reactionary, memorable

In top of it, none of our traits is duplicated! That's fun to see as well (even if some traits above, like reactionary and warrior of old, do the same thing).

Our alignments also match well:

LG Alistaire
LG Kilien
NG Aradesh
NG Lialda
CG Agatsu
CG Sylvar

@Aradesh: Thanks! The "sin monk" is an ex-monk archetype; it's supposed to represent when a monk lacks the discipline (law) to stick with the monastic traditions, or falls to his own sins (which is appropriate for Agatsu). Mechanically it isn't great (especially because it loses the ki pool, replacing with a sin pool), but I think it has its values. I picked it more for the flavor of being an errant, stray monk of sorts.

In terms of relationships, I think there's potential there. Agatsu is a sort of "town drunk" and works as a mason. Whoever is a local probably know him, and being a tavern regular means the travelers could also do so. Despite my avatar here, he's a good hearted softie, warm and friendly. He's awake mostly at nights wandering around and drinking from his Cayden Cailean-style large tankard.

I should buy some pearls of power to get you guys to cast Mage Armor at me :)

I'll get quite a few control and damaging spells fromt eh Winter patron and I get some downright vicious control hexes from the Winter Witch PRC (some of which I plan to take).

I also have the cauldron hex so We'll be set when it comes to potions.

@Aradesh: Thanks! The "sin monk" is an ex-monk archetype; it's supposed to represent when a monk lacks the discipline (law) to stick with the monastic traditions, or falls to his own sins (which is appropriate for Agatsu). Mechanically it isn't great (especially because it loses the ki pool, replacing with a sin pool), but I think it has its values. I picked it more for the flavor of being an errant, stray monk of sorts.

In terms of relationships, I think there's potential there. Agatsu is a sort of "town drunk" and works as a mason. Whoever is a local probably know him, and being a tavern regular means the travelers could also do so. Despite my avatar here, he's a good hearted softie, warm and friendly. He's awake mostly at nights wandering around and drinking from his Cayden Cailean-style large tankard.

I should buy some pearls of power to get you guys to cast Mage Armor at me :)

Sounds like an interesting build, definitely.

So you're the sort of guy who'd be inappropriately drunk at a ceremony like the one in the gameplay thread, possibly even heckling it, and all the town guards like Aradesh would facepalm and think 'him again' to themselves? :)

I just realized that Aradesh actually has remove sickness as a free spell once per day. So there's probably a precedent somewhere where one of the guard captains asked her to remove the effects of alcohol intoxication or hangover symptoms from drunk townsfolk.

@Lialda All right! I hear witches are pretty good at the save or die department. I'm planning to use the couldron hex to get those few wizard spells, barkskin and some cleric buffs into potion format for the others to use at their convenience. It will be a while before that comes online for me though, at level 4 and 6. Good to know that you have it early. Maybe you could teach me how to make a proper cauldron?

Hi everyone! Really looking forward to this. I too was quite interested to see all the pleasant similarities and differences between our various characters. I hope JasonX is happy with the choices!

I think we are an extremely versatile group. It probably won't be necessary, but Kílien has a bit of healing as well-- she can use CLW wands and she is trained in the Heal skill for emergency stabilizing and treating deadly wounds.

Yeah, with the right build and enough rounds of setup they can be.

Kilien, one question, it appears you have 5 traits?

Witches are great on the control side with hexes like Slumber and Ice Tomb. Boosting the DCs and going around spell resistance for the spells is usually the way to go. The prestige class is good especially because of bypassing cold immunity and resistance at higher levels. It’s a pity that the Irrisen Icemage feat is designed for sorcerers! The winter witch I play in a different game has a first level dip in sorcerer just because of it. They should either allow witches to get it at first level or make the prestige class work with sorcerer (maybe through an archetype). Nevertheless it’s fun to play and will go well with our group.

@GM: Killien put her drawback together with the traits at the list, and the “adopted” trait gives her a racial trait (she got warrior of old for the initiative - probably did the whole adopted thing to get this trait because was already using the combat slot for something else and couldn’t get reactionary) ;)

Also, I notice only three of you have drawbacks.

I think everyone should make introductions here and determine any pre-existing relationships. The Game thread is going to start with the opening I already posted. Once intros are done here, I will post the next game thread post which opens the game.

Kilien, one question, it appears you have 5 traits?

Adopted gives her Warrior of Old for free. I marked it with an asterisk to show that it was gained special. :)

I will have my avatar up shortly. Alistaire is a new arrival in town he has only been here a few days.

@GM: Killien put her drawback together with the traits at the list, and the “adopted” trait gives her a racial trait (she got warrior of old for the initiative - probably did the whole adopted thing to get this trait because was already using the combat slot for something else and couldn’t get reactionary) ;)

Interestingly, getting to take Warrior of Old was a bonus, because it's important to her character that she's Adopted, and I didn't end up taking a combat trait. Which is nice, because it means we're not doubling up on anything. :)

I figure Kílien has just arrived the day of the ceremony, and I'm hoping fate throws her in the path of a group of adventurers with compatible goals to hers. :)

Lialda's was born in Trunau, her mother was a Winter Witch from Irrisen on the run due to her pregnancy and unwillingness to give up her unborn child. Lialda's mother was considered a key part of the town's defenses but was lost while protecting a trade caravan. Her mother's familiar Hvita returned to Lialda and began to help her learn more about her magical heritage.

Lialda has been apprenticing with the town apothecary and has recently begun brewing up potions in surprising quantities. Anyone who has spent any time in Trunau likely knows of her even if they don't know her directly. Over the last few years people have begun to view her differently both because she has grown up and because she has changed somewhat since her mother died and Hvita returned. She isn't hated or feared per se but she does tend to make people nervous due to the slight chill that seems to accompany her everywhere.

Avatar done

On making a shared background with Aradesh:

If you're familiar with Clan Structures and the many different clans of Belkzen, you might have heard of a particularly cruel Warlord named Gorewolf. If you're an expert or have some experience specifically fighting against his clan, you might know one of his children is named Aradesh. She herself tries to hide this past.

What is probably common knowledge on her, at least to those having been in Trunau a bit longer: she's been in the town for about a year. Like some others in the city, she is a refugee from somewhere in Belkzen Hold. (One of?) the town apothecary (/apothecaries?) and her husband adopted her, claiming she is their granddaughter. Aradesh normally introduces herself as either 'Ara' or her adopted name 'Hannah'. Chances are her full name isn't known to you, as it isn't to any commoners either. She actively tries to hide it out of fear for her father and his potential spies, which is also why she tends to go always go around armed and armored, and with short hair that completely fits under a helmet. Among other things, such as trying to change her hue with a subtle facepaint.

To earn her keep, she alternates most of her time between training with and being part of the town guard. In her downtime, she tends to work in her grandmother's potion shop or accompanies the town's gatherers and hunters when they head into the forest to gather supplies. There are some rumors that there's a thing going on between her and one of Guard leader Grust's sons, though they both awkwardly deny this. On market days at the Stones just outside the town walls, she does guard duty on the first weekly one and selling the shop's wares on the other.

There's also a wild rumor that she has a ghost bunny (her spirit familiar) hidden in the store somewhere, and consequently a lot of dares among the town's kids to find and play with it.

@Lialda, Unless there's more than one apothecary in the town, we could go for that Aradesh's grandmother was your teacher and might have been for a long time before I even arrived in the town? That might also explain why you're a lot better at brewing things than I am at this point. We'd know eachother from working and studying together at the shop, and you then probably know Ara's full background as in the alias.

Yeah, that works for me Aradesh.

So Kilien and Alistaire are newcomers.

Lailda is a native of Trunau, while Aradesh and Agatsu are long time residents.

We are only waiting on Sylvar then, although it looks like he will be a newcomer as well.

Agatsu, you are friends with Omast Frum, a sergeant in the Trunau militia. The two of you used to get drunk together a lot, both of you being alcoholics. However, Omast cleaned up about a half a year ago and has been sober since then. You see him less often, but he has been trying to get you to stop drinking too.

Agatsu, you are friends with Omast Frum, a sergeant in the Trunau militia. The two of you used to get drunk together a lot, both of you being alcoholics. However, Omast cleaned up about a half a year ago and has been sober since then. You see him less often, but he has been trying to get you to stop drinking too.

Works like a plan! And it matches well my goals with the character.

So you're the sort of guy who'd be inappropriately drunk at a ceremony like the one in the gameplay thread, possibly even heckling it, and all the town guards like Aradesh would facepalm and think 'him again' to themselves? :)

This works too, if it's friendly banter :)

What a pleasant surprise! I wasn't expecting a decision today. There were some good submissions so thanks for the invite. I need to get my alias together although I may not be able to get to that tonight.

@JasonX - You are correct that Sylvar is a newcomer to town. He works as a scout and guard for a caravan.

Aradesh Gorewolf wrote:

So you're the sort of guy who'd be inappropriately drunk at a ceremony like the one in the gameplay thread, possibly even heckling it, and all the town guards like Aradesh would facepalm and think 'him again' to themselves? :)

This works too, if it's friendly banter :)

Sure, let's make that friendly! You could have a reputation of being an affiable yet hopeless drunk?

Agatsu Hulla wrote:

Aradesh Gorewolf wrote:

So you're the sort of guy who'd be inappropriately drunk at a ceremony like the one in the gameplay thread, possibly even heckling it, and all the town guards like Aradesh would facepalm and think 'him again' to themselves? :)

This works too, if it's friendly banter :)

Sure, let's make that friendly! You could have a reputation of being an affiable yet hopeless drunk?

And Lialda would very much wish she could cast remove poison to leave you instantly sober with a massive hangover.

Gameplay is up and ready.

I'll make my first post shortly, just reading a bit more background on Belkzen atm.

Edit: Hm, the inner sea world guide didn't tell me much more than what was already in the player's guide. I wonder if orcs of Golarion has better and more flavorable lore?

Nope, not really. they're pretty bad, as evidenced by the fact taht the village has ritualized suicide/murder if you or your loved ones are about to be captured by them.

Half-orcs are different but true orcs, at lteast the ones in Belkzen are really bad news.

Nope, not really. they're pretty bad, as evidenced by the fact taht the village has ritualized suicide/murder if you or your loved ones are about to be captured by them.

Half-orcs are different but true orcs, at lteast the ones in Belkzen are really bad news.

You said it O_o Reading through the Orcs of Golarion piece, I was surprised to be forced to conclude that, somehow, despite how horrible I imagined Aradesh's father to be, he's actually a pretty good guy by orc standards. He probably gave her as good of a life as could be expected for a halfbreed slavechild in that culture, and presumably would have had to go against established protocol to even get a woman to be trained as a shaman. I guess that might make him a bit more of a grey character rather than very shallow standard evil, or at the very least a rare progressive warlord?

I noticed something interesting and/or funny in the players guide too. If helgra came back to the village at age 42 and has held the position of chief defender for 20 years, that makes her at least 62 years old. And her daughter ruby is 12. Are humans in Golarion fertile all the way through, or something? Well, respect to Helgra, i guess :)

Humans always have been just not nearly as much. I know a woman locally who had a daughter when she was over 50 so it can happen even if it isn't all that common. Besides, there is always magic as an explanation?

Well, it's true that helgra is probably above average in fertility, having 'a veritable throng of children, each from different fathers'. Impressive, somehow doing that and raising them while also adventuring for 20 straight years.

In the real world, children above 50 is very rare and succesful pregnancies tens to have help from fertility clinics. Makes me wonder is Helgra is or was a regular at our apothecary. :)

@JasonX If I may ask something, my life in Trunau was partly about being part of the town watch as a combat medic/guardswoman and partly working at the store in my downtime. Is there a difference between the town watch and the militia? Should I retcon this? It feels a bit strange that neither Rodrik nor his brother recognize me as such.

I mean, I could still roleplay it as being devastated that all my efforts have gone completely unnoticed, I suppose? :)

Hello darkness, my old friend...

Or that Rodrik might have had a bit too much to drink, that works too?

Sorry, I missed that.
We will assume that Rodrik, being both a little drunk and also, he isn't giving the militia the attention he should as the reason.

Sorry, I missed that.

We will assume that Rodrik, being both a little drunk and also, he isn't giving the militia the attention he should as the reason.

Galahd, you misunderstood my instructions, I was talking about your response to Kilien, not Aradesh. Also, you were supposed to IM, not put it in Discussion.

Aradesh, what he said is somewhat correct. Kurst is who you are more familiar with. Rodrik is the assumed person to replace his father as head of the militia, but he hasn't been as attentive as he should be to militia matters. You personally think he is a bit on the irresponsible side.

Kilien, since Galahad sent to the wrong one, I will IM you with something shortly.

FYI for everyone, there will be times I will IM instructions to you about things you only see or know. PLEASE pay attention to what I say about sharing that with others, especially if I say to use IM instead of Gameplay or Discussion threads. I especially like to do that for times the party gets split or someone gets separated so that the suspense is real. I don't anticipate it happening often, but there are places where people can get involuntarily separated.

I'll try to keep an eye on my private messages. Sometimes I don't see them unless I'm looking for them, due to the site's inexplicable lack of an email notification. :)

Ah, ok. That works :) For what it's worth, I didn't receive a PM from Galahad so I assume he sent it to Kilien as you intended.

Regarding the question on why I left the graths behind: Personally I interpreted their statements on looking for us as wanting to congratulate or have a friendly chat with us. But, OOC, I wanted to relay Kilien's information on them and then leave it at that so that we could drop the potential dangerous to the AP information (that Kilien already knows the giants are massing) and move back to the festival. So, to follow up what we discussed earlier on this and dropping it for now but still have it make some sense from a narrative standpoint.

I then saw Lialda, my friend walking away looking a bit depressed so I figured that had priority for Aradesh. Perhaps we could play it that they are still at the party but standing slightly to the side or such?

Personally i'd have liked to talk to Ruby, my grandparents and Helgra as well before ending the party.

I admit I kind of missed them saying they were looking for us or I would have stayed around.

I also attempt to interact with Ruby though we quickly sidetracked and moved along to Rodrick and Kurst without a response.

I'll hold off on a post just now til we figure this all out.

Sorry, I missed the Ruby thing, she doesn't have anything to really say though, she is only 12 and very shy as well.