Thirteen Kingdoms: Tharbenia

Game Master Nathanael Love

Welcome to Tharbenia friends!

Reporting in!

Also, now that I'm in I'm looking over the sheet in closer detail, I just found out that my archetypes can't stack with each other. As they both replace the lvl 12 ki power. (sad noises)

GM question time: In basic monks, Debilitating Blows is a lvl 13 ability. When unchained came out, they made it a lvl 12 ki power. Could I make it his lvl 14 ki power, so the archetypes can still work together?

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Also, because it is cool. I added a drawback for another trait. Decided to do this:

Bonus Trait: * Birthmark (faith): This birthmark can serve you as a divine focus for casting spells, and as a physical manifestation of your faith, and it increases your devotion to your god. You gain a +2 trait bonus on all saving throws against charm and compulsion effects.

Drawback Trait: * Foul Brand (drawback): If the symbol is on your hand, you take a –1 penalty on Disable Device, Disguise, and Sleight of Hand checks.

Lvl 1 Feat: Possessed Hand: +1 hit, +1 damage, +1 disable device, -2 concentration

Eldric was born with two birthmarks, one on his left hand and the other on his right. The left hand bears the holy symbol of Pacifa. By gently touching an unquiet spirit he can calm it, allowing it the chance to peacefully move on.

His right hand, though, bears the mark of Drexiesh. This hand seems to move on a mind of it's own when the need for violence arises, striking with unerring precision and force.

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These traits have bonuses and negatives that all effect the character. His drawback hurts his disable device, which is made up for with possessed hand....which also gives -2 concentration, which negatively impacts calming strike.

Story wise, one of the reasons he was given to the Church of Pacifa to be raised as a monk was his family recognizing that the potential in their son for both good and ill, and that they hoped he would walk a brighter path with such an upbringing. He sees his mark of Drexiesh as being a constant reminder that he has to watch his actions, for the potential for both evil and destruction is within him.

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Anyways, felt that the character would be more interesting with this dual nature.

Welcome to the new arrivals! Looking forward to seeing the builds take shape.

Also to our god-king, I’m curious. What curse/mystery are you planning?

Welcome indeed.

As far as Mystery and Curse go, I'll be grabbing the Solar mystery. On Curse I'm not entirely set yet, but probably blackened. Was initially worried that that would be detrimental to weapon usage, which it obviously is, but with this group it looks like that would be just fine.

I also have some ideas on how this merry bunch got together, but I'll post that once I'm not on my phone.

As everyone finishes their crunch:

Character Build Rules from this post

By popular demand, will be adding the option to get a 3rd trait by taking one drawback (optional).

Oh man, another campaign I'm in with Grumbaki! I'm sure he's sick of me. :)

Thanks for the selection, Cuàn! I'll get right to work building Relzak!

To the contrary, Andostre, it's one more thing to be excited about. I'm just glad that you didn't bail when you realized you'd have to put up with my shenanigans.

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As for the curses/mysteries, blackened is certainly a good one. With a monk/swashbuckler/magus, you really shouldn't have to use weapons. If you do, then something has probably gone very wrong! Plus the amount of fire spells that it grants are very solid.

Also Solar is an interesting mystery. Mixture of fire and travel related powers. The only two that really stand out to me are Astral Caravan and Sun Stride. The former is downright amazing. It gives the party the ability to quickly cover distances without detection. And the latter is dimension door, which means that it can work for the entire party. Again, letting us choose where we want to be. Also I suppose that Luminous Form is a great defensive ability. Blur plus the chance of blinding enemy melee combatants is great, though sadly it's a fort save wich they'll be good against.

Have you considered being a dual-cursed oracle?

Mainly just for this: Misfortune (Ex): At 1st level, as an immediate action, you can force a creature within 30 feet to reroll any one d20 roll that it has just made before the results of the roll are revealed. The creature must take the result of the reroll, even if it’s worse than the original roll. Once a creature has suffered from your misfortune, it cannot be the target of this revelation again for 1 day.

Enemy crits one of us? Make them re-roll. Enemy saves against a saving throw that they probably should have failed? Make them reroll. One of us gets a nat 20 but fails to confirm? Take a reroll. One of us fails a saving throw? Reroll it. It's an insanely powerful controller ability.

For the second curse, could take Tongues. Only being able to speak Celestial would fit the kingdom quite well, and all of us can pick up the language so we understand each other. Plus the level up bonuses for it aren't that useful, so having it as the second curse shouldn't hurt too much.

To the contrary, Andostre, it's one more thing to be excited about. I'm just glad that you didn't bail when you realized you'd have to put up with my shenanigans.

No way, they cover up my shenanigans.

Hello and thank you fort picking Ghostwind!

The crunch is done, now I'm transcribing it to a Google Docs file before putting it into the alias (because you know, Paizo forums and stuff).

An idea! All of us are going to be lightly armored with decent to high dex. Why not all have trained stealth and take the feat stealth synergy?

“ While you can see one or more allies who also have this feat, whenever you and your allies make a Stealth check, you all take the highest roll and add all your modifiers to Stealth.”

That’s rolling up to 5d20 for all of us and picking the highest. Could take it now or lvl5, whichever wouldn’t impact builds too much.

If you're all in, I'm in.

While I like the stealth synergy idea, it feels very much out of character for Handerbald.

As for how we got together, I'd say Handerbald would have recruited Eldric himself as he'd know them through his work as head of the church of Pacifa.

Both Ghostwind and Relzak would have been introduced to him by Holderan, Handeribald's human twin brother who is much more in touch with the world outside the palace grounds and who Handerbald trusts blindly.

Quick question where do we put our characters would you like a pdf sheet?

Also Griselda is not very stealthy it might be a good idea for me to do synergy will see how the game handles and I might make it lvl5 feat if needed

And we are all here! For character sheets people tend to put it in their profiles. I’ve developed my own format, but generally anything works so long as everyone can see your stats.

And yes, let’s wait until lvl5 and see where we stand on the feat.

I can't seem to change my profile any help would be appreciated I actually like how yours is set up

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-GAq_bijxeyhMYHeQKpB3Km3qinm2AMs/view?usp= drivesdk

Here's the link for now till I can fix my profile so you can review my sheet I did take the peri bloodline so my bonus is to Int and Cha

Glad you like it! Requested access, and when I get to my computer in the morning I’ll write up how to do the profile as best I can.

Awesome thank you

Alright! *cracks knuckles* What follows is everything Grumbaki-fied. If others have advice on how to better organize, go ahead. Also please double check the numbers that I'm posting, as the numbers on the PDF don't all fall into the boxes. Also I've never played a witch before. So please double check to make sure that I got everything. But for the most part what follows can just be pasted in with minor modifications like spacing.

(1) With play by post, it's important for you and the GM to see the most pertinent information when just scrolling around. Race, Classes/Levels/Gender is what shows up. Oddly enough, Gender is what shows up first. So for you, it would look like this:

[b]Gender[/ b] Aasimar White Haired Witch (3)
[b]Race[/ b] HP (27/27) Saves(4/6/6) AC (18/14/14) CMD (17) Initiative (+8)
[b]Classes/Levels[/ b] Lvl 1 (3/3) Lvl 2 (2/2) SLA (1/1)

This should let you and the GM very quickly see where your character is at, both in terms of health and resources left for the day, but also in whether something is going to hit/affect you.

(2) Now for the body of the profile. A bit part of this is formatting. And that means [spoiler] and [ / spoiler] without the spaces on the second one. Likewise, to make something bold it is [b] and [ / b], to make something italics it is [i] and [ / i] and to make something struck through it is [s] and [ / s]

Because you liked my breakdown, I'm going to post up a character sheet for Griselda following the same format. Just paste it all into your profile body and take out the extra spaces in the formatting.

[spoiler=Combat, Defenses]

[b]Combat[ / b]
White Hair to Hit: +1 (BaB) + 2 (Str) = +3
Damage: 1d4 + 2 (Int) = 1d4+2
Grapple: +1 (BaB) + 2 (Str) = +3

[dice=White Hair Hit]1d20+3[ / dice]
[dice=Damage]1d4+2[ / dice]
[dice=Grapple]1d20+3[ / dice]

[b]Defenses[ / b]

AC: 10 (base) + 4 (Dex) + 4 (Armor) = 18
Fort: +1 (Base) + 2 (Con) + 1 (Resistance) = +4
Ref: +1 (Base) + 4 (Dex) + 1 (Resistance) = +6
Will: +3 (Base) + 2 (Wis) + 1 (Resistance) = +6
CMD: 10 (base) + 1 (BaB) + 2 (Str) + 4 (Dex) = 17

[ / spoiler]

[spoiler=Race, Traits]
[b]Peri-Blooded Aasimar [ / b]
* Outsider Native
* Celestial Resistances: acid resistance 5, cold resistance 5, and electricity resistance 5.
* Darkvision: 60ft
* Skilled: +2 Knowledge Planes, +2 Spellcraft
* 1/day SLA: Pyrotechnics

[b]Traits[ / b]
*Magical Knack:
*

[ / spoiler]

[spoiler=Feats, Skills, Equipment]
[b]Feats [ / b]
Lvl 1: Arcane Armor Training

[b]Skills [ / b]
* Having trouble reading these on the PDF, sorry
*
*
*
*
*

[b]Background Skills [ / b]

[b]Equipment [ / b]
* Masterwork Backpack, harrow deck cards, noble outfit, 5 sheets of parchment, pouch, belt, spring loaded scroll case, waterskin
* Chain Shirt

[ / spoiler]

[spoiler=Spells]

[b]Spells Known[ / b]
* Spell Level 0: Dancing Lights; Detect Magic; Mending; Read Magic; Stabilize
* Spell Level 1: Blend; Blend With Surroundings; Cure Light Wounds; Enlarge Person; Reduce Person; Snowball
Spell Level 2: Cure Moderate Wounds; Force Sword; Levitate; Sun's Disdain

[b]Spells Prepared [ / b]
* SLA: Pyrotechnics
* Lvl 0: Dancing Lights; Detect Magic; Mending; Read Magic; Stabilize
* Lvl 1: 2x Cure Light Wounds, 1x Enlarge Person
* Lvl 2: 2x Cure Moderate Wounds, 1x Force Sword

[ / spoiler]

[spoiler=White Haired Witch]
[b]White Hair (Su)[ / b]
* At 1st level, a white-haired witch gains the ability to use her hair as a weapon. This functions as a primary natural attack with a reach of 5 feet. The hair deals 1d4 points of damage (1d3 for a Small witch) plus the witch’s Intelligence modifier. In addition, whenever the hair strikes a foe, the witch can attempt to grapple that foe with her hair as a free action* without provoking an attack of opportunity, using her Intelligence modifier in place of her Strength modifier when making the combat maneuver check. When a white-haired witch grapples a foe in this way, she does not gain the grappled condition.
* At 4th level and every four levels thereafter, a white-haired witch’s hair adds 5 feet to its reach, to a maximum of 30 feet at 20th level.
* The hair cannot be sundered or attacked as a separate creature.
* In addition, a white-haired witch further improves her ability to control her hair as she progresses in level, gaining the following abilities:
* Constrict (Ex): At 2nd level, when the white-haired witch’s hair successfully grapples an opponent, it can begin constricting her victim as a swift action*, dealing damage equal to that of its attack.

[/ spoiler]

When you take out the formatting, your profile will look like this. While there are dice rolls here, they won't actually roll on your profile. Meaning in combat you can just copy/paste.

Gender Aasimar White Haired Witch (3)
Race HP (27/27) Saves(4/6/6) AC (18/14/14) CMD (17) Initiative (+8)
Classes/Levels Lvl 1 (3/3) Lvl 2 (2/2) SLA (1/1)

A few final thoughts. I didn't add your familiar stuff in, so that could be added. It depends on how you want to use your familiar. When I have them, I tend to not use them except for their bonuses and pick tiny ones that can hide in my pack. So I never really bother statting them out. If you want to use yours more actively, then it can have it's own spoiler.

I noticed when going over this that you only have 1 trait, magical knack. Given that you are full caster level, I don't think that this trait actually does anything for you. And you have a second trait as well. So, 2 traits to play around with!

Also, you may want to get your Intelligence up higher. Perhaps lower your strength, and take weapon finesse? This will let you have a high dexterity for hitting, and high intelligence for damage.

Besides for that, your build is your own, and won't give any more unwanted advice. Just something I saw when writing out the profile. If you do want to chat about grappling and builds, I'm always down for talking about crunch.

PbP tends to be a very long-term thing. I've got several campaigns that have been going on for multiple years. Having things to talk about in the interim between posts is always welcome.

And as always, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. And not just me. The players in this group are solid, and many have a better grasp on the mechanics than I do.

Oh! And go to gameplay. Make a post and delete it. This will mean that in your campaign tab, it will tell you when new posts are made. While the campaign hasn't started yet, it will make following the campaign easier.

With Grumbaki's permission...

There's another code which might be helpful. It lets you link an URL and even name the link, and the code is, it couldn't be otherwise, [url][/ url]. If you want a specific name, then you'll do something like this:

[u r l=linkhere.com]Name you want to display[/ url]

This is useful if you can link features instead of copying the whole text in the alias. For example:

Feat: Weapon Finesse

Of course, that's useful for me because I create all my characters manually - if you use a character builder app, you might find it easier to just copypaste everything in the alias.

Finally, you can use more than one code of you put one into the other, like this:

[i][b]Weapon Finesse[/ b][/ i]

I hope that's not too overwhelming.

Not at all! You raise good points. I just have to stop myself sometimes from putting too much out there.

Speaking of which!

Tharbenia
* Aasimar Solar Oracle
* Aasimar White Haired Witch
* Aasimar Monk/Rogue
* Human Hexcrafter Magus
* Half-Orc Swashbuckler

Order of the Righteous Trinity
* Human Inquisitor
* Human Summoner
* Human Spelleater Arcane Bloodrager
* Kobold Dragonblood Shifter
* Gnome Sorcerer Orc Bloodline

The Vault of Heaven
* Human Antipaladin
* Human Evangelist Cleric
* Fetchling Shadow Caller Spiritualist
* Wood Elf Zen Archer Monk / Sorcerer
* River Elf Transmuter

Three Teams. All very different. Ours has 2 full casters (Divine and Arcane) and 3 melee (1 of whom is a partial caster). Our team is lightly armored with alot of close combat burst potential.

The Order of the Righteous Trinity has 2 melee, but their front line is very scary. Especially the bloodrager. Arcane Bloodline with a Butchering Axe? That's no joke. A summoner / blasty sorcerer is likewise a nasty combo.

And the Vault of Heaven? It's a mixture of the most dangerous and the easiest to take down. They only have 1 dedicated front line (whom as an antipaladin can easily hurt all of us goodies, and who will be very hard to burst down). But they a cleric who can channel negative effects, mixed with other full casters and a zen archer? If they get the initiative and have range on someone else, then their team is going to put down some serious hurt.

Now, if PvP does break out, what scares me most is enemy casters. Our front line is strong enough to go toe-to-toe with anyone else's. Where we lose out, right now, is in ranged encounters and in crowd control (unless you count stacking bodies as crowd control).

Given how close combat oriented we are, we need to get in close and take out squishies. For this reason, I think that one thing we absolutely need is for our White Haired Witch to have see invisibility as a prepared spell, and for everyone else to carry basic, mundane, flour on them. That way our Grappling Witch can see enemies who are invisibility and point them out to us, so that we can use "poor man's glitterdust" on them if it is a group, or just grapple whomever is invisible if there is only one. The last thing we want is enemy crowd controllers being immune to our front line, or enemy scouts feeling like they can get in amongst us without issue.

The other big thing, is that for PCs who can wear medium armor, I think that a "must-have" enchantment is this:

Mind Buttressing

"Mind buttressing armor grants the wearer a +2 resistance bonus on Will saves and renders her immune to possession and mental control (including charm and compulsion effects like command and charm person). If it’s donned by a creature already under the influence of such an effect, the creature immediately receives another saving throw (if one was allowed to begin with) against the spell or effect. If the check is successful, the effects are suppressed until the creature removes the armor, after which they resume. This ability can be applied only to medium or heavy armor."

The only ones who can use this that I know of are our oracle and magus. But this is outright protection against the nastiest effects that PCs can throw at each other. Immunity to charm, hold person, confusion...it's a controlling wizard's worst nightmare. If nothing else, I think that we need to get our King this kind of armor as soon as possible. It also protects him against enemy kingdoms who try to mind-control him. Which given a political type kingdom building game isn't out of the question.

Anyways, that's just some initial thoughts as we wait for the campaign to start and as everyone finalizes builds.

Awesome thank you and the reason I have magical knack I was thinking of taking two levels in a combat class still getting the final details ironed out. I will work on getting this on my profile as soon as I get on tonight

I also plan on having symbol of revealing as one of my main spells it triggers when an invisible creature approaches and basically covers them in fearie fire

Glad it was useful! Two level martial dip? I know a few combos that would work. Which one are you thinking?

And didn’t even know about symbol of revealing. That’s a very useful spell

Ok so a few combos I was thinking take two levels of alchemist for the feral mutagen when we get into serious combat and you guys need more melee I can go full animal mode with bite, two claws, and hair all primary attacks, if I do vivisectionist I also get sneak attack. That or maybe rouge and take the deadly dealer rouge talent for a range attack with the harrow deck.

Either way it will save me a feat from having to get armor proficiency for the arcane armor training

Hey, sorry for missing most of the discussion. I live in Houston, Texas, and even though our crazy winter storm is over, we're still dealing with the aftermath. We got water back this morning! It's not yet safe to drink, though.

Anyway, I also started to build Relzak, and I'm having second thoughts about the archetype Whirling Dervish. The main reason I wanted it was because I can't picture a barbaric-type character with a rapier, but a scimitar works for what I have in mind. The Whirling Dervish archetype lets me wield a scimitar while using the various swashbuckler abilities, but it's Saranae-themed, so there's a few "mercy" abilities that tie to non-lethal damage, which I'm not planning on using. So, the archetype costs me a bit, and the other nice stuff it allows doesn't come online until higher levels.

Instead, I can take the swashbuckler-standard Slashing Grace feat (DEX to damage), and use a scimitar from that, and it costs me a feat slot instead of the other archetype costs.

I just wanted to bring that up because a Whirling Dervish is how I submitted this character, and I wanted to see if Storm Crow or His Highness Handerbald had any issues with that.

Lol picturing a big burly orc with a toothpick rapier. I'm my head there's a lot of eye gouging lol

I could picture him running around with only a kukri, but yeah with a rapier the mental image is wrong. :)

(Too bad he can't buckle-swash with a falchion or greataxe.)

Hadn’t thought of those. Lots of primary natural attacks are always fun. The vivesectionist is a good one, especially with that sneak attack. My character would love to have a partner to do that with!

If the purpose is just to grapple, maybe try a monk combo? Lvl 1 Weapon Focus Hair / Lvl 3 Feral Combat Training. Can now use flurry with your hair, giving you 2x hair attacks. Which is great for doubling your grapple chance. Also witch has Mage Armor. Monk gives Wis to AC, which helps bring up your defenses.

The main problem I see with the witch is low BaB, which hurts for landing the hair hits and for hair grappling. So....

Lvl 1: Lifting Hand U-Monk
Lvls 2-4: White Haired Witch
Lvls 5+: Evangelist (better BaB and Hp than witch, but with extra prestige class features)

This would make magical knack be exactly 2 levels bringing you up to full CL. It’s really different than the Vivesectionist, but I think that both would be cool dips to do.

And I think with what is happening in Texas, no apologies are necessary. :p

I just wanted to bring that up because a Whirling Dervish is how I submitted this character, and I wanted to see if Storm Crow or His Highness Handerbald had any issues with that.

Perfectly fine with me.

And welcome Griselda.

Came up in another discussion, so here are the updated domains and options:
Updated Religion

I should have every domain and subdomain split out to every core deity now!

I've also added a section below with which traits/deific obediences/ect I've approved to port to which deities (will add as stuff comes up)

I also have a solution for low BaB for later levels of course I will be mostly healing at a distance btw since my hair will eventually have a reach of 25 ft lol but later on transformation will be a prepared spell every day but only for last minute emergencies when more combat is necessary will also take more melee buff spells along with healing like right now I took force sword not for myself but to provide one of you with a +1sword in combat when needed

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-ugApFc2fa96jLOGmFZsiGKtXIngqpNE/view?usp= drivesdk

Here is the updated sheet if you want to take a look. I do like the vivisectionist build better that way my witch can focus all spells on healing and the alchemist extracts that only I can drink I use as enlarge person and shield. Works very well might even take a few more alchemist later on we will see how the game plays out

Sounds good! I look forward to flanking with you

Likewise XD ok so let me check if I did this right lol

Ok quick question for the GM I would like to take the final embrace feats since my hair uses my Int as it's strength score can I use that to qualify for the prerequisites?

Big question: the elven subraces presented in the doc are in addition to the base elf on the CRB, or do they substitute it?

The elf (and dwarf) sub-races replace the CRB elf.

Yes- after you meet the other requirements (constrict which you get at 2nd and BaB 3), you can qualify for the Final Embrace feat- seems like BaB will be your limiting factor on those as you go.

Correct the final one would be at lvl 15

Griselda the Silver Witch

Female Assimar White Haired Witch (2), Vivisectionist (1)

Darkvision60ft, Perception(+6)

HP(26/26), Saves(5/5/4), AC(16/12/14), Initiative (+6)

Languages
Celestial, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Sylvan

GM Update!
To simplify the process of knowing when all 15 players are locked in with their character's I've added a sheet into each of your respective slide decks with a table-- please fill your character into this table, including setting them to "yes" when complete so I can track where we are!

Also included are slides with "NPC cards" 3/slide-- fill out one for each NPC you've seeded in your back story (and Kingdom back story). I think this will be a good method with so much intrigue and NPC relevance in this/these game(s).

Also-- I'm going to use some kind of loot tracking sheet that will (among other things) give me a ping on relative party wealth.

If anyone has a format they've used and want to suggest post a link to one and I will steal whichever works out the best.

Straw Poll!
Going to do a quick straw poll across the three games on a few rules, drop your input on the following:

Options:
Two potentially problematic options were brought up, and I mentioned I had never had anyone pursue those paths, but I want to check the overall feel so we can decide to allow/disallow in a way that feels fair-- so give an up/down on the following:

1. Sacred Geometry

2. Blood Money

Optional rules--
3. It was requested/suggested in one group to possibly use an alternate death rule-- something like either 5E DND or Starfinder's system, so any thoughts on that drop them. (having my first PK in over 3 years today might be making me think on this.)

Ok so this is my first play by post so please if you could explain the slide deck and where do I find it lol

Yep! No worries!

Look at my name above my posts- you'll see the words "Vault of Heaven" "The Order" "Thirteen Kingdoms" and "Tharbenia" in that order--

these are links, which will open up a Google Slides Slide deck for the game-- that's where I will post information about the game, and combat maps.

These are editable by anyone with the link, so just click on "Tharbenia" and you can type in your information there!

You can/should also check out the "Thirteen Kingdoms" link which has information relevant to all the tables, but you should not typically read the other two tables slide decks.

I have read the one on the 13 kingdoms still trying to see what religion the witch will follow XD but thank you I will try to go post my info now