Blaydsong's Reign of Winter (PF1)

Game Master Blaydsong

Welcome to the Reign of Winter.

We’ll just jump right into things here, since I’m foregoing the application process.

A little bit about me:
I still consider myself a fledgling GM, but I have been getting a lot more experience in the last few years. I have some experience GMing in Pbp games, but it has been many years, and none of them were on the Paizo forums, or with the Pathfinder system in general, until recently. All that being said, after being involved in a few different games here and picking up a few idea and tricks, I think I have a good grasp on how I want to run this game. That being said, please feel free to provide (positive!) feedback if there is something that I have forgotten or could be doing better/more efficiently.

Keep in mind, I’m absent-minded and either miss information that I shouldn’t have, or forget to add bit of important information (sometimes). Other times, my information might be a little too specific, or not providing the important bits. Hopefully you don’t hold any of that against me. I’m still growing and learning as a GM. Above all, I try to have fun and do my best to provide an environment where others can too.

Here’s the rundown for character creation. Nothing too crazy:

- 20 point buy.
- For Races/Classes/etc, if you can find it in the Archives of Nethys, then it’s good with me. Anything else will be on a case-by-case basis.
- Roll for starting gold, or average, which ever is higher.
- Two Traits, one of which must be Campaign.
- Background Skills

I know that there are some alternate thoughts about this AP. I’m all about telling the story as it was written, but I’d like to know if you guys have an issue with that, or would prefer some modifications.

Posting: Standard 1/day minimum, and 1/weekend, I think is more than fair for most people. I highly encourage more, if you can. If you can’t please communicate openly with me. I currently work from home, and will be for the foreseeable future, so I generally post whenever I can.

Whenever possible, I will be using Roll20 for maps. It offers a lot of tools that you just don't get with any other medium, which I think lends a little more flavor to the game. There will be some items that will be tacked to the forums, as well.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask!

I’ll be spending some time getting things together while you guys are sorting out your characters.

So what are we thinking for characters? Im going to try either a bloodrager or a magus. But then again I'm open to anything.

Hey Natloz! I was considering reprising Dr. Ethyl for this game. She's a vivisectionist alchemist and would fit with the skill role. High perception, knowledges, and disable device. She can hold her own in combat but doesn't excel at it.

I'm not married to her (good thing too because her ex-husbands are dead) and my alt would be some sort of divine caster.

Thanks for running!

And I don't just say that because I'm absolutely starved for games right now :)

Always happy to give positive feedback. My biggest piece of advice if just to keep a word document or notebook where you write down big important things the party did. Since you're running an AP most of the plot is already figured out, but making sure any decisions or acts we did that may change slightly from the expected path will help in the long run.

A few questions for the GM:

1) Are drawbacks allowed?

2) Have you considered using the Elephant in the Room feat tax rules?

3) Is any crafting allowed during character gen? I.e. I'm most likely to play a wizard and may want to invest in some scrolls.

For my fellow players, please give an idea of the character you want to play. It sounds like somebody is planning on a Skald, and I am most likely going to be a full arcane caster (probably wizard, maybe witch). But I can be flexible, say if somebody else really wants to do the winter witch build.

Edit: It seems we're planning on being very arcane heavy.

Also, exactly how many people are playing? If I'm not mistaken I think we have exactly 4, which means we will have a narrow party and will have to make sure to cover our roles effectively if we're interesting in living.

Always happy to give positive feedback. My biggest piece of advice if just to keep a word document or notebook where you write down big important things the party did. Since you're running an AP most of the plot is already figured out, but making sure any decisions or acts we did that may change slightly from the expected path will help in the long run.

I'll see what I can do. When I'm GMing at home, I try and get the players to do what they can as far as Chronicling or just keeping track of stuff like that. I'm not the best multi-taker in the world, so the less I have to think about, the better my experience goes.

A few questions for the GM:

1) Are drawbacks allowed?

I normally don't, simply because people have a tendency to abuse it. But, if you have something specific in mind, and it's fits in with your character, I'm at least willing to consider it.

2) Have you considered using the Elephant in the Room feat tax rules?

While I see the benefit of this, I'm not personally a fan. Again, if for no other reason than it's unfamiliar territory.

3) Is any crafting allowed during character gen? I.e. I'm most likely to play a wizard and may want to invest in some scrolls.

Similar to #1. I don't usually, but I'm willing to look into it.

We do indeed have 4 players, so cover your bases as you can. Or not. :)

1) Understood, no problem.

2) Understood, no problem.

3) I would like to argue for being able to do a little bit of crafting, simply because having more scrolls available at low levels helps with the "useless low level caster" problem. But it's not make or break for me. I can always just start crafting once the game starts.

Right now I'm leaning away from the witch concept, simply because it feels weird to me to incentivize a type of witch that would run into all sorts of things with cold resistance and/or immunity. I think I might try my hand at an abjurer, a wizard school I've never focused on playing before, and will focus on preventing damage from happening.

Not really sure how strong it will be. An anti-mage sounds fun, but the subschool for it seems very weak. Seems difficult to optimize. But hey, thays half the fun!

Reporting for battle and GLORY!

So, just for reference, we are potentially looking at the following:

Human (Ulfen) Skald
Wizard/Arcane (Abjurer?)
Magus/Bloodrager?
Vivisectionist Alchemist (maybe divine caster)

One thing I did forget to put into my initial post, but I'm hoping is generally not much more than an obvious covering of the basics. Evil alignments are discouraged. I'm not completely against it if someone can have the character working with the rest of the group, but I need to be convinced. ;)

Hmm...more questions than.

1) What are the story motivations like for this campaign? How easily would non-good characters be able to justify their motivations? I can't gleam much information from the Player's Guide for what the plot or main party motivation is.

2) How much are we expecting to be in civilization versus somewhere out in the wild? From what little I can gleam from the Player's Guide and online, it seems to be much more in the wild.

I am softly considering that this may be the time to try a necromancer out. I have heard vague rumors that this campaign is incredibly challenging, and with a party of 4 without a very solid frontline at the moment, I think we could definitely benefit from some undead fodder to soak attacks.

I can promise you that as far as minion management goes I am incredible capable, as I have a long history of playing conjurers. And undead are much easier to handle because I'm not just summoning random stat blocks on the fly. With a small party I don't think I would bog down the map much, and in fact a few skeletons would probably be great at keeping the backline from being rushed.

1) What are the story motivations like for this campaign? How easily would non-good characters be able to justify their motivations? I can't gleam much information from the Player's Guide for what the plot or main party motivation is.

I'll be honest, I'm not sure that I can answer that any better, but if I was to hazard a guess, I would say the usual: survival, grab for power/knowledge; and if nothing else... pure disdain for the cold. :p

This is part of the reason I generally don't like having evil characters. They're hard to play the 'teamwork' card, unless they have a great motivation.

2) How much are we expecting to be in civilization versus somewhere out in the wild? From what little I can gleam from the Player's Guide and online, it seems to be much more in the wild.

I would have to agree, though I believe that, at most, it's a 50/50 split. I do know that there is some 'civilization' but I say that it's in large quantities.

I am softly considering that this may be the time to try a necromancer out. I have heard vague rumors that this campaign is incredibly challenging, and with a party of 4 without a very solid frontline at the moment, I think we could definitely benefit from some undead fodder to soak attacks.

I can promise you that as far as minion management goes I am incredible capable, as I have a long history of playing conjurers. And undead are much easier to handle because I'm not just summoning random stat blocks on the fly. With a small party I don't think I would bog down the map much, and in fact a few skeletons would probably be great at keeping the backline from being rushed.

I'm sure this is a common response, but I would have to defer to the rest of the group on this one. First of all, what-specifically-are you thinking of as far as a necromancer build? And, how would the other characters respond to knowing one of their members is plays with the undead? What is the character's motivations?

All in all, I have no problem with necromancers (I'm currently playing one, actually). But some of the stuff that goes along with it can be off-putting, and seemingly not very heroic.

If we are having a wizard, I think I'll go with bloodrager. Charisma vs int. I think social skills will be covered by a skald. Although... with a skald, there can be some free rages to be had. Skald and Bloodrager can hold a line with vivisectionist adding extra pointy bits and a wizard for artillery support. That does leave a distinct lack of divine support but nothing overwhelming offense can't handle. Minions would free up some front line necessity. I prefer a world that thinks created and controlled undead are more utilitarian whereas 'wild' undead are a nuisance to be destroyed. I suppose that comes from my enjoyment of the Eberon setting.

Valid concerns. I have two different necromancer builds I could do. However much of the character motivation would have to stem from knowing what the campaign motivation is. If ultimately it's "stop Armageddon", even most evil characters can justify helping out. Asmodeus imprisoned Rovagug after all. But at the moment I really don't know much about the campaign motivation, even from reading the players guide.

The first is a dhampir cruoromancer, on the arcane side. I have yet to develop such a character beyond a very early build idea, but I may make him somehow related to my dhampir kinslayer, Zed Ulmin.

I'm also considering my kuthonite cleric, Nareth I'grada, on the divine side. There is no character I have put more time into. He was a featured character in my first campaign that I ever ran, an antagonist-turned-ally who has very complex and conflicting motivations that can be very roughly summarized as "Following Zon-Kuthon to see if he can be reverted back to Dou-Bral". He sees Zon-Kuthon's journey as similar to his own, and even though much of his pain and suffering was at the hand of kuthanites, if the twisted god of pain can be healed, than why can't he?

Interesting enough Nareth makes a decent healer for a negative cleric due to the death domain letting him treat targets as undead for negative energy healing.

However I certainly don't want to play anything that the others don't think would be good for party cohesion, so I would definitely want to hear more before proceeding.

natloz hits the nail on the head. Either character concept would see undead as a tool, and wild undead are dangers to all. Neither would want to go out killing people or creatures to bolster their army, they would take from the ranks of their fallen foes.

Personally, I actually find the cleric to be more appealing, but my only reasoning for that is simply because he's human. As the Player's Guide stats, non-humans will have something of a hard time in this AP. Dhampir could probably pass, when covered, but people will certainly give him funny looks when they really see him.

But I'm actually okay with either.

I think if Delmoth goes with the alchemist character and I go with Nareth, we will have adequate healing between Skald/Alchemist/Nareth, full divine casting, and two different 2/3 arcane casters. At that point natloz could go with either concept, although if he went magus we would have no dedicated frontliner and we would be pretty squishy at low levels, especially before I could add some undead fodder. My two coppers anyways.

Bladysong do you have any problem with the rich parents trait? And if its allowed, could that character use the extra money to buy a wand? Possibly a partially charged wand?

Getting a wand of cure light or infernal healing will cover our healing needs for quite a while.

I'm a little hesitant to say yes, but what the hell. This is for your Alchemist?

I see our Skald is neutral and our (potential) alchemist is considering a wand of infernal healing.

We running a morally questionable party lmao

I bit late, but here I am!

Apparently you are in need of something strong in the frontline, perhaps even with some divine backup?

I could go completely non-caster and frontline... like a fighter or ranger. It appears that with a Skald and a Bloodrager, having a barbarian would be too angry in the same group.

On the other hand, I could go with a paladin or a warpriest.

I will say that a paladin might have a lot of trouble getting along with a necromancer, unless you're confident in swinging the character motivation.

Of course I could also just not play a necromancer and alleviate that problem.

Oh, misread something and missed the your cleric was also a necromancer. Yes, a paladin would be troublesome.

I believe I'd prefer to play a full BAB class. I'll take a look on some options and then get back here.

A full BaB character would certainly fit well. It may even allow natloz to go with the magus character if they would prefer that over a bloodrager.

@Bladysong yes it would be for the good doctor. With a cleric in the party even a negative cleric we probably have enough healing between the three of us to get through. Especially if one of us takes the heal skill. I'll have a healer's kit + surgeon's tools, but no heal skill until 3rd level.

Still hashing out character details and background.

Thinking about a fighter with the Aldori defender archetype, but not really going for the traditional route of a high Dex build. He'll be strong, wield in in two hands and wear a full-plate.

He'll be able to tank and dish a good amount of damage. Aside from that, I'm also planning on be quite good with skills.

Out of curiosity, how does a fighter build become good with skills?

Or y'know, anything except beating things to a pulp :)

Combat Expertise. Requires good Int. :)

Always wondered how well an Aldori build would work.

Out of curiosity, how does a fighter build become good with skills?

Or y'know, anything except beating things to a pulp :)

There are a couple armor training and weapon training options that give skills equal to your BAB. Armor training opens Acrobatics, Climb, Disguise, Escape Artist, Intimidate, Knowledge (engineering), Profession (soldier), Ride, or Swim, while Weapon training could open Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate and Ride.

Aside from that, being human with a +1 to Int and background skills would be already 6 ranks/level.

Perhaps just those 6 will be enough though and instead of spending feats to get more skills I could go for a disarm build and buff my will and initiative.

Am I able to craft alchemical items while adventuring? Perhaps at a reduced rate similar to magic item creation. The rules don't specify if it's possible or not.

So far as I can recall, Crafting works the same all across the board. Just requires sufficient time and money/resources for whatever the project happens to be.

I'm probably underselling it. I'll have to read up on it to get the specifics, but I don't think that there's any crazy special rule for crafting with Alchemy.

This AP has a LOT of traveling. And deadlines... nuff said! ;)

Perhaps more than any other I've seen.

I would not recommend a crafter of anything. A party that's road ready and travels light is best. Forget about carrying undead with us too... you may be shot on sight. We travel in Viking lands! They don't mess around...

As for Uthred being neutral: I play him like a viking from the show Vikings. I try to even include proverbs and expressions from Scandinavian lands. If it's a problem I can dial him down to a good alignment, but I would prefer his stoic efficiency and neutrally aligned outlook. He doesn't commit evil though or PvP, but doesn't concede or back down from arguments if they are based on weak morality and unsupported by common sense or against the idea of winning a battle by any means necessary.

Hmm, you think undead is just completely unviable? There are lots of tricks, anything from as mundane as physically covering them with a cloak all the way to dissolving a bloody skeleton in acid and just having it regenerate when needed. But I think you have the most experience with this AP, so if you think undead is completely out of the question I can pursue another concept.

This AP has a LOT of traveling. And deadlines... nuff said! ;)

While this doesn't surprise me, based on my current knowledge, I hadn't known enough until just now that it was that involved.

Eh lots of traveling means lots of downtime means crafting actually makes sense, hence my prior question. Having a wizard who was a crafter had a ton of time to craft early in his career. Once he could teleport directly to plot he suddenly and paradoxically had no time for anything.

As for carrying equipment/materials, that's what ant haul and friendly bloodrager's are for.

You would certainly be restricted to anything that doesn't require a full lab (which shouldn't be a lot, so far as I know).

I don't have any issues if you guys want to get into crafting, and I'll certainly do what I can to give you the opportunities to craft, as desired, but there may be some restrictions here and there.

Per the rules, a character can spend 4 hours crafting while adventuring, although due to distractions they only net 2 hours worth of work per day.

The caster can work for up to 8 hours each day. He cannot rush the process by working longer each day, but the days need not be consecutive, and the caster can use the rest of his time as he sees fit. If the caster is out adventuring, he can devote 4 hours each day to item creation, although he nets only 2 hours' worth of work. This time is not spent in one continuous period, but rather during lunch, morning preparation, and during watches at night. If time is dedicated to creation, it must be spent in uninterrupted 4-hour blocks. This work is generally done in a controlled environment, where distractions are at a minimum, such as a laboratory or shrine. Work that is performed in a distracting or dangerous environment nets only half the amount of progress (just as with the adventuring caster). hour blocks.

Source - Look at the paragraph just above "Cooperative Crafting"

Makes it difficult to make big magic items, but a few scrolls here and there are easy enough.

Also an FYI, based on feedback if we think a necromancer is entirely out of the question, it is a very slim chance I will want to play a divine character.

@GM: Since you mentioned before that you'd be willing to consider a drawback, I'd like to ask for one. I'd be interested in taking the Insatiable drawback to take the Student of Philosophy trait. My idea for my PC is for him to be an actual philosopher, despite also being a fighter. I intend on taking ranks on Bluff and use my background skills on Linguistics and Knowledge (history).

The other traits will be Restless Wayfarer to give me access to Knowledge (local) (which I believe in conjunction with K. history could work as "K. Philosophy"), and Aldori Caution.

I believe the drawback in question is meaningful, since as Uthred/PDK mentioned this is a travel heavy AP and thus I'd have to carry extra food. Also, the trait that I'd take is mostly for RP purposes.

Regarding the necromancer, my PC would be completely fine with it. I'm seeing him as TN dude.

@GM: Since you mentioned before that you'd be willing to consider a drawback, I'd like to ask for one. I'd be interested in taking the Insatiable drawback to take the Student of Philosophy trait. My idea for my PC is for him to be an actual philosopher, despite also being a fighter. I intend on taking ranks on Bluff and use my background skills on Linguistics and Knowledge (history).

The other traits will be Restless Wayfarer to give me access to Knowledge (local) (which I believe in conjunction with K. history could work as "K. Philosophy"), and Aldori Caution.

I believe the drawback in question is meaningful, since as Uthred/PDK mentioned this is a travel heavy AP and thus I'd have to carry extra food. Also, the trait that I'd take is mostly for RP purposes.

Regarding the necromancer, my PC would be completely fine with it. I'm seeing him as TN dude.

Please tell me he's a halfling. This build screams of a hobbit. :D

In all seriousness, though, I'm perfectly okay with this. A swordsman philosopher with a penchant for the finer things sounds good to me. :)

Also an FYI, based on feedback if we think a necromancer is entirely out of the question, it is a very slim chance I will want to play a divine character.

A necromancer would probably be fine, but having a constant companion may not be viable. Thought raising downed enemies as you come across them would work. That'd be something that you'd have to play by ear.

Hehe, unfortunately he'll be a human, since I believe it fits better with the Brevoy region. Also, I already have a halfling fighter in another game.

His main thesis will be to think about the relation between "truth" and "lie". It appears to be a bit boring, but I believe it will be quite fun and I don't want to spoiler things!

CampinCarl9127 wrote:

Also an FYI, based on feedback if we think a necromancer is entirely out of the question, it is a very slim chance I will want to play a divine character.

A necromancer would probably be fine, but having a constant companion may not be viable. Thought raising downed enemies as you come across them would work. That'd be something that you'd have to play by ear.

Thanks. I do want to hear back from Uthred though, as he seemed most opposed to the idea.

Which reminds me.

@Uthred - Let me know when you've got your character at level 1 so that I can have a closer look.

Per the rules, a character can spend 4 hours crafting while adventuring, although due to distractions they only net 2 hours worth of work per day.

Quote:

The caster can work for up to 8 hours each day. He cannot rush the process by working longer each day, but the days need not be consecutive, and the caster can use the rest of his time as he sees fit. If the caster is out adventuring, he can devote 4 hours each day to item creation, although he nets only 2 hours' worth of work. This time is not spent in one continuous period, but rather during lunch, morning preparation, and during watches at night. If time is dedicated to creation, it must be spent in uninterrupted 4-hour blocks. This work is generally done in a controlled environment, where distractions are at a minimum, such as a laboratory or shrine. Work that is performed in a distracting or dangerous environment nets only half the amount of progress (just as with the adventuring caster). hour blocks.

Source - Look at the paragraph just above "Cooperative Crafting"

Makes it difficult to make big magic items, but a few scrolls here and there are easy enough.

Sure enough but I'm not talking about magic items. I'm talking about alchemical items which follows different rules.

As far as I understand it from the rules not specifying and from Bladysong's ruling there is no practical difference between crafting non-magical item during my time in town vs on the road or in a dungeon.

Just to be clear, my words were less of a ruling, and more of a hand-waving because I wasn't 100% up on the rules.

Looking into it, this seems like a fairly good rundown of Alchemy 101:

starting gold: 3d6 ⇒ (2, 6, 5) = 13 X10 = 130

Or 105

Looks like 130 starting gold for the Suli crossblooded (arcane/abysal) bloodrager.

I was going to pick orc but thought better of it. For both backstory and stat reasons.

Wealth: 5d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 6, 2, 1) = 18

180gp, cool!

@GM: when do you need those L1 stats?
@Campin: I'm not the GM - recommendations based on my play exp in book 2. Ask GM as he'll be managing this game.

Uthred start gold: 3d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 1) = 12 X 10 = 120gp

If I'm not mistaken, regular rage doesn't stack with skald rage, correct? Then with a full fighter joining us, and since I'm not really looking at wizard anymore, natloz do you want to go back to the magus? Although I suppose magus doesn't mesh well with skald either because you can't use spell combat and benefit from their raging song in the same turn.

I have an idea for Nareth to make him very melee capable, especially with a skald buffing him, so he will be more of a "lead his undead by example" kind of necromancer. Get to add wisdom to hit and damage from level 1 (albeit a limited number of times per day), then pick up power attack and heavy armor proficiency later. More of a battle cleric build.

I would have to dump int to make it work, but it seems we have plenty of high int characters.

I think I'm gonna go with Nareth. I'm really liking how the build is coming together and I'm prepared to tackle the undead challenge head on.

Inspired Rage (Su) At 1st level, affected allies gain a +2 morale bonus to Strength and Constitution and a +1 morale bonus on Will saving throws, but also take a –1 penalty to AC. While under the effects of inspired rage, allies other than the skald cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride) or any ability that requires patience or concentration. [...] (Unlike the barbarian’s rage ability, those affected are not fatigued after the song ends.) If an ally has her own rage class ability (such as barbarian’s rage, bloodrager’s bloodrage, or skald’s inspired rage), she may use the Strength, Constitution, and Will saving throw bonuses, as well as AC penalties, based on her own ability and level instead of those from the skald (still suffering no fatigue afterward). However, inspired rage does not allow the ally to activate abilities dependent on other rage class abilities, such as rage powers, blood casting, or bloodrager bloodlines; the ally must activate her own rage class ability in order to use these features.