Walk any road, Float any River...A kingmaker campaign (Inactive)

Game Master TheNine

Arisha's backstory is up. I still need a description and personality for both her and James (and a detailed blurb on my NPCs) but I should get that up in a few hours or so. Almost done!

Sorry for the delay, my internet went out for most of the day.

Added four friends and a foe.

There, added the friends and a frenemy.

Alrighty, added a list of the important NPCs. There are a few that are ambiguously positioned as friend, rival, or foe because it’s more fun that way.

Apologies for the delay, but I have Arisha fully completed!

TheNine, I've gotten the four hooks and a crook in Angus backstory, do you want them listed out somewhere for convenience?

Also, I was looking at the differences between the horse as a 'druid animal companions' and the 'heavy horse'. As a cavalier I assumed his mount would be more like a large war horse, but there is quite a difference in several stats.

Would there be some way to let Angus start with a heavy horse as his animal companion, instead of the generic druid companion? If it's not an even swap, what about reworking the feat Monstrous Mount to let a heavy horse be his companion from level one?

Angus. Do you have plans to put armor on your horse and be more knight like or do you plan on being more swift and agile like cavalry?

If option A go for the heavy horse, If Option B light horse would be fine

Your four hooks and a crook in the backstory are fine.

definitely more knightly (heavy cavalry), med. armor was the animals second feat, and has scale armor from the get go. The goal is to have Angus in heavy armor able to charge on heavy horse with lance, sword or hammer; but also able to support on the ground with the reach weapon. Like an English man-at-arms supporting archers...

Thanks for the heavy horse! Unless things get really wild, I will stick with the horse instead of a griffon.

Finally got her alias all properly set up and stealth dotted in. Just realized I probably ought to buy her a horse too, though. XD

Will have the intro post loaded up soon, looking forward to this :)

Really enjoying the interactions between characters.

Just so I know how familiar Angus is with anyone other than Seraphina have any of you visited the the hunting lodge called 'Elphinstone' owned by the Medvyed family?

That's where Angus has been the last 20 years. Or has he heard of your reputation from visiting nobles who came there to hunt?

I don't think Arisha would have had any reason to visit Elphinstone. Its quite a distance from where she grew up and where she has travelled - she might not even be familiar with the place.

Its possible that Angus may have heard some vague reports of Arisha - as a young woman roaming around with a construct companion might be an unusual enough story to become a casual topic of conversation but I don't see her as having a particularly loud 'reputation' as it were.

So, much to my annoyance, I realzied that fighting fans are actually an exotic weapon even as eastern weapons! I thought they were simple ones.

X_X

I adjusted my to hit bonuses in the stat line accordingly. Amusingly they are still easier to dual wield with two weapong fighting than dropping two-weapon fighting to take proficciency in them. Least I know what my 3rd lvl feet will be.

Sooo not sure if I'm buying a horse, or if we're just taking the carriage and then planning to heel-toe it around the Stolen Lands once we arrive at Oleg's?

Sooo not sure if I'm buying a horse, or if we're just taking the carriage and then planning to heel-toe it around the Stolen Lands once we arrive at Oleg's?

Up to you! If you want to go ahead and get a combat trained mount, now is probably best. If not, you could wait and see if we can claim some bandit horses for ourselves soon and save some money.

I realized we don't have a dedicated healer, so we probably better pick up a healing wand of some variety. Sera will able to use Infernal Healing without a UMD roll, but she does have a +8, so she could probably shake a CLW out of a wand in an emergency. I have about 500 gold left to spend, should we chip in together to get a full one?

Wow, didn't realize we had no healer. Granted at least the standard alchemist can use at least some cure spells.

Yeah, everyone decided to play warriors.

Anecdotally, people are so averse to playing clerics that now if I really want to get into an open recruitment and I don't have a guaranteed spot, I always submit a cleric. I believe that I'm playing clerics in five games currently (let's see... Reign of Winter, Dammerhall, Crimson Throne, Rise of the Runelords, and Kingmaker. Yep, five clerics, plus a druid as healer in a Skull & Shackles game and an oracle healer in a custom game, AND a cleric that I played thru the entirety of War for the Crown). This is also why I had a dwarf cleric as a possibility for this game, which is potentially still on the table if I get killed due to us having no healing. :)

Tove has CLW as a spell known at least. I sadly do not have much gold left over to contribute to a wand, though I would be happy to if able

Huh, wonder why people are so averse to clerics (or oracles) lately? I had ethought of an oracle for this one at one point but this one was more interesting.

Guess I know what I will build if I die then.

I really need to find a game for the character I applied to a Jade Regent (not necessarily that campaign) game with about the same time as this one. A wizard how was going to go wizard 3 oracle 4 mystic theurge. She was going to start as a rather stuck up snooty b%~&! of a wizard who was going to have a life shattering change when she was cursed and became an oracle as well. She promised to be a very interesting character concept.

People don't like playing clerics because they're support roles. (This is seen over and over again in watching play.) Many players just don't like the idea that their turns are spent making everyone else able to do cool stuff or fixing up their hit points, instead of being the one who's fighting the monsters or hurling balls of flame. This is why the cleric is actually balanced up from other classes, to make it a desirable class to play in spite of this hurdle, but people are just so averse to playing support that folks rarely do it if given the option.

That makes a certain amount of sense, my only real issue with them is that I am not particularly religious IRL and I have a hard time shifting into that mindset. That being said my highest level character is an 18th level cleric (ok 8 levels of cleric and 10 of a deity specific PRC that's features rarely ever come up in play) in a living campaign and I love her to death, especially when she comes into conflict with something that is against her beliefs.

The only thing that I don't love about her is that grind to level 19 and then 20 though.

Come to think of it I have several divine casters in that living campaign. 2.5 clerics (one is a follower), and an oracle. It's also the only campaign I have a fighter in (a sword and board obsessive-compulsive tank based off of Albedo from Overlord).

Support characters are my main focus, tbh, especially bards. Yumiko can attest from our Tyrant's Grasp game that 99% of my cleric's turns are channeling or being a budget bard with Iomedae's Inspiring Sword. Honestly, what turns me off of most clerics I consider building is the shitty skill points.

For what it's worth, Tove will be more focused on support than being the center of attention, especially once she gets the ability to share fast healing with everyone. The plan is for her to get combat reflexes, outflank, and improved outflank and pass them out to the party with her raging song all at once.

Dang, got ninja'd by Tove and Yumiko, this was aimed at Katsumi's comment!
Your assessment makes sense. Personally I want to play the types of character I enjoy reading or watching. So when I envision a character their usually melee or skill.

I struggle with the concept of a 'support character' who would actually chose a life of an adventurer. Sort of like what percentage of doctors or theologians would pick to be a frontline combat soldier.

I just don't know many 'adrenaline junkies' who have the patience to also be the other.

Dang, got ninja'd by Tove and Yumiko, this was aimed at Katsumi's comment!

Oh no you didn't, you can only be ninja'd by me Mr! Tove has not yet earned apprentice status so she can't ninja you. >_<

I can understand that thought process. For most of my suport type characters it is often that they they go not for their own need for adrenaline so much as their desire to make sure their friends who need adrenaline come back alive or some kind of existential threat that they are pulled into dealing with. In that high level cleric it is a sense of duty, her adoptive father traveled and fought the scourge of evil lycanthropes and, though he died in the line of duty, she took up the mantle. She has friends who adventure and she does what she does to support them so they can come back home.

Some of the best research in gaming just comes from doing the equivalent of anthropological field studies: Simply sitting quietly and taking notes while watching groups play. It's especially useful to watch at convention games where people don't know each other or haven't played the game before, because you get to see the interactions without the base-level assumptions that are baked in to existing long-running game groups. One of the results to come out of that research is that in the 3.x series of games, the cleric class is seen as a "less desirable" class, so the designers deliberately juiced it up with lots of powers to try to make it more tempting. In 4e the design switched to making the cleric able to heal for free while activating other powers, so that you would get into fights and mix it up and heal your team while also having action, but 4e ran into... other hurdles. In 5e the cleric is just no longer the primary healer; bards, druids, divine soul sorcerers, all can heal just as well. The Life cleric simply happens to be the extra healer who's over-the-top. This means that almost any character can do a little support, thereby freeing up the cleric to do more action.

...they go not for their own need for adrenaline so much as their desire to make sure their friends who need adrenaline come back alive or some kind of existential threat that they are pulled into dealing with..

That makes sense, and that would be the only motivation I can see. But even then, the party leaves to deal with a problem elsewhere, the Doctor/theologian has to weight helping the team or taking care of their local obligations... it's just a slippery slope for me, and like I said. Their usually not the characters I want to play. I have tried bards, oracles and clerics and have gotten really bored with them. The exception was a cleric of Gorum, who behaved like a first line fighter and a paladin/oracle that would be more fun except for the game she is in.

Some of the best research in gaming just comes from doing the equivalent of anthropological field studies: Simply sitting quietly and taking notes while watching groups play. It's especially useful to watch at convention games where people don't know each other or haven't played the game before, because you get to see the interactions without the base-level assumptions that are baked in to existing long-running game groups. One of the results to come out of that research ....

LOL, it would make sense that the companies which sell Table top RPG's would have research people :)

I haven't sat at a table and played since 1982. I started playing here on the boards about six years ago when I was on third shift and needed something to keep my mind sharp.

I'm drawn to artists, idealists, and the mad (often all three at once), so they all have their own idiosyncrynous reasons for doing what they do. I personally find that it's not that hard to come up with character motivations for just about anything, especially when it's a character whose life story you have control over. We are all logically inconsistent. We are all philosophically incoherent. We rarely know what we want and rarer still know why we do or how we should get it. The key to an interesting character is to find that method that ties all those irrationalities together into someone who feels real.

I'm drawn to artists, idealists, and the mad (often all three at once),

No wonder we get along so well!

We are all logically inconsistent. We are all philosophically incoherent...

Hey now!

I'm drawn to tropes, and recreating parts of characters I like from fiction and history into character I create. So part of the reason Seamus plays a stringed instrument is because Gurney Halleck does.

That reminds me of a character I want to give a real go at one of these days. The campaign I play her in is falling apart in a slow, agonizing, way. A tiefling silver balladeer bard named Jenny who plays a mithral fiddle. Her signature song is "A Devil Came Down to setting appropriate location".

Yeah, many of the games that I’m in have ground to a halt. Sadly looks like half or more of them are dead. :(

Damn you guys had a party while I was at work :(

For what its worth, Arisha has Infusion, and is happy to pass out extracts of Cure Light Wounds to everyone. I just realized that HL doesn't export my formula book, so I'll fix that and put it into my profile.

Arisha is very much a full support character anyway since her archetype trades out both Bombs and Mutagen. She mostly relies on James (or any crafted allies) for anything hyper combat related, while she passes out buffs or summons as appropriate.

As for Clerics, I don't like them much since they get such a terrible amount of skill points. I know there are archtypes for that but they take away certain things in exchange and then I feel like playing a different class. Also, I find the cleric spell list (on its own) a little boring sometimes :( Channel Clerics are awesome though!!

Anecdotally, people are so averse to playing clerics that now if I really want to get into an open recruitment and I don't have a guaranteed spot, I always submit a cleric. I believe that I'm playing clerics in five games currently (let's see... Reign of Winter, Dammerhall, Crimson Throne, Rise of the Runelords, and Kingmaker. Yep, five clerics, plus a druid as healer in a Skull & Shackles game and an oracle healer in a custom game, AND a cleric that I played thru the entirety of War for the Crown). This is also why I had a dwarf cleric as a possibility for this game, which is potentially still on the table if I get killed due to us having no healing. :)

I shall have to remember this trick as I don't mind playing Clerics and other supporting roles. But I'm also a sucker for skillful combatants like Rogues and Rangers. ^_^

The good news is there is a cleric of Erastil NPC in Kingmaker, so we may be able to recruit him for extra support. Seems like the conversation veered away from my question though, so I'll ask again. Would anyone like to chip in on a wand? I would probably lean toward Infernal Healing, for ease of activation and 10 hp per cast, unless PCs would object? I know Tove's player doesn't favor that spell, but maybe that's not for all characters?

Angus has 80 gp. to chip in, and he may be earning us a little more getting a water-cart driving gig...

Even beyond my personal objections, I prefer CLW for only taking 1 standard to cast as opposed to a 1 round cast time in combat. I also as a skald would need to UMD an infernal healing wand, but I don't with CLW. I actually don't even have UMD yet thanks to skald getting crappier than bard skill points.

Everyone else is UMDing regardless, even the alchemist, so it comes down to whether you want Seraphina running around Infernal Healing people or Tove running around CLW'ing people

EDIT: One last thing, I forgot that Tove already gets fast healing from a feat as long as she's performing, and afaik fast healing doesn't stack

I can pitch in only 9 gp. That leaves me flat broke.

Everyone else is UMDing regardless, even the alchemist, so it comes down to whether you want Seraphina running around Infernal Healing people or Tove running around CLW'ing people

EDIT: One last thing, I forgot that Tove already gets fast healing from a feat as long as she's performing, and afaik fast healing doesn't stack

Really? Even though CLW is on the Alchemist's formulae list? I guess that's because they don't technically "cast spells"...

Ok, CLW it is! 89 gold closer and I will look at my purchases again to be sure of how much I can contribute. We probably don't really need the tent yet...

Yeah, fast healing won't stack I am sure. If we fall short on the cost maybe we can sweet talk our way into a partially charged wand? I also agree that cure light is preferable given that I don't hink we want some one binge using infernal healing and turning evil on us.

Although the alchemist doesn’t actually cast spells, he does have a formulae list that determines what extracts he can create. An alchemist can utilize spell-trigger items if the spell appears on his formulae list, but not spell-completion items (unless he uses Use Magic Device to do so).

I should be able to use a CLW wand just fine! I have some money (about 188gp iirc) to chip in as required.

Huh. I thought it worked like it does for investigators. They must just be missing that line then

I could throw in 100-150 gp, depending on our total need.

Probably we want to leave ourselves with a little gold, just in case, but 500 from me, plus 100 each from Katsumi and Arisha and 50 from Angus, we'll have it. Fully loaded even. ^_^

Thanks everyone!

100 gp noted.

Got a picture in mind for your robot friend Arisha? Putting up Oleg's map for uh... reasons.

There is one in my profile GM! Still not entirely happy with it but it should do for now. There wasn't really any good artwork that I could find that fit the theme

Derp dont know how i missed that!

sorry about the delay in posting, will have the first combat maps and posts ready in the morning.

I will roll initiatives for everyone.

For all of book One, you gain a +4 perception bonus in the dark or dark places. Its a prophecy bonus Assuming you believe in such things

Yeah, see you never know how to respond to this sort of thing. One obviously wants the benefit of believing. But is it that Angus believes in such things? Or if I, the player, believes in such things? Or if I the player believe such things could happen to Angus? It's so confusing. I know Angus has had little interaction with 'the supernatural.' I mean other than he lives in a magical world with fairies and dragons and wizards and such. And it really wouldn't be fair for me to hold his "make-believe world" to a standard based on my experiences with the supernatural.

So confusing. Is it safe to say "We believe, but GM help our unbelief"?

Yeah, so putting that + 4 on his character sheet! :)

post incoming tomorrow sorry started a new job and been trying to catch up

Hooray for being gainfully employed though! :D

Yes, Hooray! Congrats on the new job DM The nines! were not going anywhere, post when your able. The schedule will eventually even out.