GM_DBH's Shattered Star

Game Master DBH

I hope Elena's all right.

I can't think of anyone off the top of my head, but I'll give it a think.

I sent out an invite in the discussion of another campaign I’m in. Two people there, both are excellent players. Will see if either one is looking to join another campaign.

Do make sure you are clear we need someone to cover the healing duties.

I still remember doing a recruitment to replace a parties rogue. One applicant applied with a Paladin? No Rogue levels or any of the needed skills.

He even got upset when I told him that a Paladin didn't fit.

Yup! As much as I’d love to have a half orc barbarian join us, it would be remiss on my part to not include details such as us needing a healer. :)

One player has shown interest, waiting for the other to respond before he jumps in. So, we will have another divine caster soon. :)

Hi there! I'm the player Grumbaki invited, and since the other player has declined, I'm here to make a divine caster with a focus on healing. I'm putting together a proposal now! Looks like it's a 20-point buy with two traits? Any house rules I should know about?

Hi eriktd! Welcome!

You've probably seen this from the recruitment thread, but...

20pt buy.
Max HP & Gold at 1st level. Roll or half +1 after that.
No VMC or 3PP.
Two traits. One from the players guide.
Background skills are in.

Hi again! This is Silviana Tyne, the character I made for this game. Taking a cue from Elena's Shelynite cleric/bard, I decided I wanted to play something that also felt like a divine bard: healing (obviously) with team-supporting magic and abilities. I also wanted her to feel like a paladin without actually being one. This all pointed to the last class that Paizo published before abandoning Pathfinder First Edition, the omdura! I haven't played an omdura before, and I've never been in a campaign with one, so here's a brief summary of what I have learned about them:

• They are a mashup of paladins and clerics, kind of like inquisitors. But where inquisitors are very self-oriented with their solo tactics and judgments, omduras are team-oriented with invocations. Invocations are like judgments that affect the whole team. When activated, they last a minute and give a focused boost to something. Examples include: damage, attacks, saving throws, DR, CL checks, or AC. These are sacred bonuses, so they stack with pretty much everything.

• Omduras only get six levels of spells, like inquisitors and warpriests, but they get all the spells on the cleric and inquisitor spell lists. (Half-elves get a favored class bonus where they can steal spells off the paladin list, too.) They are spontaneous spellcasters, so they have a limited number of spells known. This means Silviana can use cleric scrolls and wands for all the important restoration spells like remove blindness and breath of life.

• Omduras also get what are basically alignment-expanded versions of smite evil, divine bond (weapons), lay on hands, and mercies. Their unique higher-level power is they can cast commune each day as a spell-like ability.

They were created for a particular IP that makes them somewhat African/Mwangi adventure-themed, but there isn't anything in the rules that says they can't be from somewhere else in Golarion.

I've also given Silviana pretty good combat abilities through Desna's Divine Fighting Technique, though she'll pale in comparison to the powerhouse martials you've got here. Since I took a level of oracle to shore up her AC, she also has the Powerless Prophecy curse, which means she can't act in surprise rounds.

Healing is her specialty, and so I decided to go all-in on hands-based healing with Healer's Hands and Signature Skill. This should easily take care of hit points between fights. For status removal, she has her divine touch power and spells, and for anything specific that a cleric could just pray for when resting she can use paragon surge to get Expanded Arcana (which I'll style as the same sort of thing, asking Desna for a specific blessing).

She doesn't have channel energy, so she won't be healing the entire party in combat until she gets mass cure spells, but I wouldn't advise relying on that kind of healing anyway. She also doesn't get good hope like Elena, but her invocations should do some of the same things-- and she does have blessing of fervor for really tough fights like the chernobue. :)

What do you think? Anything I should change? Anything I didn't do right?

Kudos to you for coming into a campaign at level 12 with a well thought out character like that.

I've never played with an omdura before, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the mechanics play out.

I’m (obviously) very glad to see you here. Also, wasn’t expecting the class choice. I remember reading it and thinking it looked interesting, but aside from that I’ve never seen it used. Really looking forward to seeing your character in action.

Also never seen the class in action, but was always curious. Should be interesting.

I went through and read the Recruitment thread after I had figured out what I wanted to do with the character, and I was a little surprised that other players had suggested most of what I decided to play. Specifically, Desna's Shooting Star, Healer's Hands, and the omdura-- though not all at the same time. :) Also it was a little startling to see how many changes the characters have undergone since the game's genesis. Something very interesting must have happened!

I also went back about five pages in Gameplay and read about what's been happening in the recent past. I take it Silviana will probably take the Shard of Pride from Elena before she urgently departs the party to get back to Magnimar?

Welcome aboard eriktd.

Silviana looks to be a great character, and well suited to what the party needs. I don't know much about Omdura's so I'll be quickly looking them up.

As a 12th level character you spent 108,000gp on gear?

Also yes you do get the shard of pride from Elena when she tearfully leaves. Hugging most of the party. Except for Lt. Vhane of course. :)

Axton is the sole remaining character from the beginning. He changed from Sorcerer to Arcanist when he had an alien intelligence invade his mind. :)

Lt. Vhane is played by Javell, who was an original plyer but changed his character when the original one wasn't working out.

Bharak joined in the first book and has become certain death to anything that gets into melee range.

Ryn just joined at the same time as you. Since Elathras & Elena both technically left at the same time and were replaced by Ryn & Silviana you can have Ryn & Silviana knowing each other as you would have been waiting at the Magnimar Pathfinder chapter house.

Any questions just let me know.

As a 12th level character you spent 108,000gp on gear?

Yep, 108,000gp exactly. Here's an itemized list for you! :)

No questions come to mind yet, but I won't be shy if any occur to me. I'll look over Ryn's background and see if there's anything that we could have bonded over while journeying to the Abbey. Happy to play a traveling scene or two if they help us both get into character!

Bharak joined in the first book and has become certain death to anything that gets into melee range.

Bharak's player has been here since the very beginning, also. He switched PCs to his current one when his Slayer was too slay-ful.

But yeah, this has been a very fluid party.

Was about to say that. But yeah, thanks for remembering me and my dearly departed slayer. :)
Given the character change quite easy to forget that it was the same account, so no worries to our GM.

I'm always worried to our GM.

Oh right. Poor Gul.

I'm old and forget things. Luckily I have my players to remind me of things... that benefit them.

Oh, sorry! It wasn't clear to me that Silviana was already with the party.

I made the assumption that we wouldn’t want to continue without the full party, but I could be wrong. I didn’t do an introduction post, but I could always go back and describe it in a flashback. :) Mostly I didn’t want to hold back the group’s momentum. :)

Momentum certainly is important.

And thank you for the Magic Vestment. :)

I played it as Ryn & Silviana arrived together. Ryn joined the party immediately while Silviana was horrified by the destruction of the holy sites up above and fell behind until she heard the fighting and rushed to catch up.

Meaning she joined you just after you killed the Qlippoth in C2.