The Star Shaman's Song (Inactive)

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How are weapons being handled? Stone age weapons or something else?

I would imagine we can use pretty much everything but refluffed? A longsword would be out, but a macahuitl wouldn't be, and serves much the same role.

Here is Brainiac's unchained summoner submission. I decided to go with a kami eidolon. The crunch is mostly done, except for traits and equipment.

I also am trying to decide on an oracle curse to go with the soulbound summoner archetype. The three I've narrowed it down to are deaf, god-meddled, or powerless prophecy. GM, is there one of those you like more or think would be more appropriate for the campaign?

Once that's settled, I will write up her backstory.

How are weapons being handled? Stone age weapons or something else?

No metal weapons, so weapons at start will be made of wood, bone, stone, rope, shell, teeth, etc. But it is a fantasy campaign. You can manage most weapons, I think, by just reimagining them. A big sword might be more like a tooth studded tetsubo in appearance, but still do slashing damage.

If I were making a character, I'd lean into axes, spears, knives/daggers, and stone age weapons.

One thing to think about is that stone and bone weapons break pretty easily. So replacing a stone knife or hand axe takes about 8 hours of work. Replacing a wood/leather/stone flail is more complicated and would take longer.

Here is Brainiac's unchained summoner submission. I decided to go with a kami eidolon. The crunch is mostly done, except for traits and equipment.

I also am trying to decide on an oracle curse to go with the soulbound summoner archetype. The three I've narrowed it down to are deaf, god-meddled, or powerless prophecy. GM, is there one of those you like more or think would be more appropriate for the campaign?

Once that's settled, I will write up her backstory.

I like god meddled just because gods are so weird in this setting. If you went with that I'd probably expand that results table so it didn't get boring.

Deaf seems annoying for the party to deal with, but I'm also fine with powerless prophecy.

Ok, so I decided to go back to my original concept of a shaman (herb) who acts as one of 3 "wise women" in the clan, known as the Maiden, Mother and Crone. She is, of course, the Maiden :-)

Did/do dragons and the other major magical beasts exist in this game or not?

I like god meddled just because gods are so weird in this setting. If you went with that I'd probably expand that results table so it didn't get boring.

Awesome, I’ll go with god-meddled. I’ll finish up my character tomorrow morning.

Did/do dragons and the other major magical beasts exist in this game or not?

From a mythological perspective, the Clan believes that the Worldheart dragon sleeps in the Worldheart, which is a volcano at the center of existence. The Worldheart Dragon dreams existence into being.

From a practical perspective, dragons you encounter are likely to be big and magical, but more savage and less smart than those of standard settings. For other magical beasts, not sure what ones you are interested in particularly. For something like owlbears, they might not exist yet, or you could meet the first one.

Getting around to working on the character. My concept as it stands is an elf who was taken in by the tribe long ago, and has been with them since they were a child. Their only connection to their elven heritage are the mysterious axe and buckler made of an odd, purplish wood that they stumbled out of the jungle holding as a child.

Quick question though, as it'll be important for my build. How do people, GM and other potential players, feel about using Elephant in the Room rules?

dotting for interest

So I can say have a Large Sharktooth Club (Greatsword) and wear a Giant Beetle Carapace (Breastplate) and they would function largely same?

Getting around to working on the character. My concept as it stands is an elf who was taken in by the tribe long ago, and has been with them since they were a child. Their only connection to their elven heritage are the mysterious axe and buckler made of an odd, purplish wood that they stumbled out of the jungle holding as a child.

Quick question though, as it'll be important for my build. How do people, GM and other potential players, feel about using Elephant in the Room rules?

I’m all for the elephant rules. They open up a lot of space for flavorful feats when you don’t *have* to spend feats on power attack, weapon finesse, etc.

They would function largely the same with the exception that rolling a 1 with the weapon gives it the broken condition and someone critting you with a 20 gives the armor the broken condition. I suppose broken for the armor might represent some straps being broken and destroyed is the actual carapace breaking.

Primitive Weapons

Breastplate is pretty much the best armor you can get, I think. I don't think there is a way to get to a two handed weapon with bone or stone by the rules. The Great Terbutje gets you to 1d10 damage, and you could wield it two handed. That isn't too much worse than a greatsword. 1.5 less average damage.

Simeon wrote:

Getting around to working on the character. My concept as it stands is an elf who was taken in by the tribe long ago, and has been with them since they were a child. Their only connection to their elven heritage are the mysterious axe and buckler made of an odd, purplish wood that they stumbled out of the jungle holding as a child.

Quick question though, as it'll be important for my build. How do people, GM and other potential players, feel about using Elephant in the Room rules?

I’m all for the elephant rules. They open up a lot of space for flavorful feats when you don’t *have* to spend feats on power attack, weapon finesse, etc.

That's what I was thinking. I've only played in one campaign that used them, but it seems to open up some combat options for everyone. I imagine even casters being somewhat martially capable in this setting.

I've played so long with (a homebrew equivalent of that predates) Elephant in the Room that I barely know how to play without it anymore.

Would you say that Scarred Witch Doctor and Winter Witch could stack, or not?

They don't technically alter (by the wording) the same class features, but the latter restricts your Familiar choices to a certain subset of them (winter themed Familiars) while the former gets rid of your Familiar entirely.

Fanki's stats should be complete now. The basic idea I have for her backstory is that she was training to be an apprentice to the clan's shaman and was sent out to make contact with a local god to beseech them for their favor. But the god was capricious and decided to meddle in her fate, subjecting her to a barrage of strange, primordial magic. The magic would have killed her but instead, her psyche manifested an eidolon to protect her and take the brunt of the magical assault. The god was amused and so they let Fanki live.

She can now summon the eidolon as a protector for herself and the clan, and the connection has given her a modicum of arcane magic as well. But the magic of the gods will forever more have strange and unpredictable side effects on her.

Assuming all this is cool, I can do a full write-up next week.

This a rough draft.

I don't hear anyone opposed to Elephant in the Room rules, so let's roll with that.

Would you say that Scarred Witch Doctor and Winter Witch could stack, or not?

They don't technically alter (by the wording) the same class features, but the latter restricts your Familiar choices to a certain subset of them (winter themed Familiars) while the former gets rid of your Familiar entirely.

I always worry that hidden in these questions is some power combo that I am missing that will break things. Assuming that isn't the case, I'm fine with those two archetypes together.

Fanki's stats should be complete now. The basic idea I have for her backstory is that she was training to be an apprentice to the clan's shaman and was sent out to make contact with a local god to beseech them for their favor. But the god was capricious and decided to meddle in her fate, subjecting her to a barrage of strange, primordial magic. The magic would have killed her but instead, her psyche manifested an eidolon to protect her and take the brunt of the magical assault. The god was amused and so they let Fanki live.

She can now summon the eidolon as a protector for herself and the clan, and the connection has given her a modicum of arcane magic as well. But the magic of the gods will forever more have strange and unpredictable side effects on her.

Assuming all this is cool, I can do a full write-up next week.

That all sounds fine, and I don't need more background than that.

That said, that story could fit pretty well into the first adventure if you wanted to play that story out. We'd have to work through the rules details since you wouldn't have the Eidolon or the curse yet. Something like you have already had some magical training, you get the best of your or the Eidolon's skills, maybe some of your stats are higher before you invest some of your power in the spirit.

We can talk about all of that after selection is complete.

This a rough draft.

** spoiler omitted **

That's a fun straightforward build.

Everyone note the skill rules changes from the first post. You can use Background skills and you also get 2 extra skill points per level above what you would normally get.

Still a week left in this recruitment.

Storm Dragon wrote:

Would you say that Scarred Witch Doctor and Winter Witch could stack, or not?

They don't technically alter (by the wording) the same class features, but the latter restricts your Familiar choices to a certain subset of them (winter themed Familiars) while the former gets rid of your Familiar entirely.

I always worry that hidden in these questions is some power combo that I am missing that will break things. Assuming that isn't the case, I'm fine with those two archetypes together.

It's mostly that Witch Doctor is very thematically appropriate, and I was mulling over taking Winter Witch into the PrC of the same name. I also might not do that though, or instead play a Winter Witch/Ley Line Guardian (which does explicitly stack).

Can we take a drawback for an additional trait?

Sure, drawbacks are fine.

This sounds like a pretty interesting concept that can work with a surprising amount of builds despite the limitations of the theme and setting. I'd love to be a part of it and have a rough idea of a fire kineticist with a devoted fascinating with phoenixes, rebirth, and the elemental planes.

I'll have something more concrete in a day or two but right now I'm curious how the Golarion-focused traits will be handled. Given what you said on the OP I'd assume I can just change the flavor of the ones I want them available? Including ones that have perquisites for race?

Also I'm curious which languages were likely to run into?

You can definitely refluff Golarion specific traits. Probably for race specific ones.

The elemental languages exist. Giant. Sylvan for sure. Humanoids won't necessarily have unified languages. Not all elves will speak elven, for example. Draconic exists. Either none of the outer planar languages (abyssal, celestial, etc.) exist, or if they do you don't know them.

That all sounds fine, and I don't need more background than that.

That said, that story could fit pretty well into the first adventure if you wanted to play that story out. We'd have to work through the rules details since you wouldn't have the Eidolon or the curse yet. Something like you have already had some magical training, you get the best of your or the Eidolon's skills, maybe some of your stats are higher before you invest some of your power in the spirit.

We can talk about all of that after selection is complete.

Yes, that sounds great. :D

Would you allow a Saurian Champion Cavalier?

Would you allow a Saurian Champion Cavalier?

Yes. That would fit right in.

Awesome, now just have to figure out how large a dinosaur I can have and still be able to fight since I can't use ranged weapons...

Any types I shouldn't go looking for?

Wow, that's a great archetype.

Working up a character. Things have been extremely busy, but I have a good idea of the backstory and the build for my Goliath Druid. Hopefully if things settle down this Friday I’ll put it all together and get it together in a post.

And here is Eskala Redmane! I've kitted here out to be mainly focused on doing ranged fire damage but also made sure to give her some useful skills as well when out of combat. I'll be adding her fluff relatively soon but the short of it is that she's the clan's pyromancer/fire shaman who struggled to control her powers in childhood but was eventually able to after being mentored by a phoenix for a time. Think Jean Grey or Charlie McGee from Firestarter.

Awesome, now just have to figure out how large a dinosaur I can have and still be able to fight since I can't use ranged weapons...

Any types I shouldn't go looking for?

You can use any of the Dino animal companions.

Thinking out loud at this point, would a half-orc be an acceptable way to do a 'feral human'? One who grew up outside the tribe, perhaps thanks to a young dinosaur - the two teamed up to keep each other fed.

I can do it with human, I was just wondering if I could use half-orc's mechanics to be a tad more fluffy?

Chiming in on team Half-orc:
I've been sitting on this alias forever, promising myself that a bear Druid/Shaman or Totem barbarian would be their bag...

Has their time come?

Here's my character, Gnarok, an elf occultist!

As mentioned, my idea is that he stumbled out of the forest one day several centuries ago and was taken in by the clan. Since then he's become something of a historian for the clan, with his canny intelligence holding many of their stories. All he has to connect him to his elven heritage is the mysterious axe and shield he came with, made of a strange violet wood that likely hails from the dream realm that elves come from.

I love the sound of this. I love playing around with technology levels in fantasy games and I don't think I've ever seen someone propose a prehistoric campaign.

I need to read the entire thread in detail, but I'm considering a Wild Child Brawler. Going for kind of a reverse "raised by wolves" thing, where he rescued a young animal in his childhood and has grown up with it as inseparable friends.

However, you said Animal Companions must be obtained through roleplay, which is fine, but for clarity does that include classes that start with them? Additionally, I understand you're going for verisimilitude so I would be fine with either having a restricted list to choose from or even being assigned a particular companion.

****EDIT****

Ah, someone already submitted a Wild Child. I scanned the submissions but missed that one initially. Back to the drawing board!

Daniel Stewart was the one who made the Wild Child, and he switched to the herb witch, so go for it RamzaBeoulve.

You can take an animal companion at character creation. I was just thinking if someone wanted to upgrade they would have to play it out.

Thinking out loud at this point, would a half-orc be an acceptable way to do a 'feral human'? One who grew up outside the tribe, perhaps thanks to a young dinosaur - the two teamed up to keep each other fed.

I can do it with human, I was just wondering if I could use half-orc's mechanics to be a tad more fluffy?

I'm willing to consider half-orcs humans for the purpose of belonging to the clan. The thing that bugs me most about half-orcs is their darkvision. Darkvision takes some of the magic/wonder out of exploring the paintings in a cave by torchlight.

If that's the problem, you could mandate that a Half-Orc needs to take one of the alternate traits that replaces Darkvision, like Skilled or Forest Walker.

That is what I am leaning toward.

I was going to do a summary of current submissions, but I'm going to put that off until tomorrow.

Good stuff so far. I'm surprised by the number of occult submissions.

A surprising number of recruitments ban Occult classes for some reason. I was mulling over an Occultist myself as a first choice, but have probably settled on Witch. A Mesmerist or Medium might make a good shaman-alike too though.

Ok, this is Ouachitonian's submission. I bounced around several different possibilities, but eventually settled on a Hunter. All of them revolved around having an animal companion, and Hunters do companions better than anybody. So I have a Hunter with an allosaurus. Now, the allosaurus is medium until 7 for...some reason. Too small to ride? Normally, yes. But I took the Undersized Mount feat, so I can do that. So he'll be all about riding his allosaurus around and mounted-combating everything with his bone lance. Eventually, I want to have a friendly druid (perhaps a party member) awaken his mount, which leads to some more weirdness: awakened animals are Magical Beasts and can't be companions. But it might qualify under Monstrous Companion feat, or I can take Leadership and make my former companion now my cohort. in either case, I might need to wait longer than 9 (when a party druid could first cast Awaken), but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, GM willing.
Also, then I become a Hunter with no companion. I could maybe take another companion, obviously not one I'll ride (maybe a bird for scouting or something). Alternatively, I could just function as a Hunter whose companion has died. Again, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Daniel Stewart was the one who made the Wild Child, and he switched to the herb witch, so go for it RamzaBeoulve.

You can take an animal companion at character creation. I was just thinking if someone wanted to upgrade they would have to play it out.

Ah, you're right. However, it looks like there are a *lot* of animal companion submissions, so I think I'm going to hew towards something a little different.

My favorite class is Bard, so I think I'm going to roll up a Filidh. I know they're not, like, mechanically top-notch but they have some neat stuff they can do and also feel very much like the best characterization of a "prehistoric Bard". (Also, they're inspired by/a riff on original 1E Bards, which has had them near the top of my list of stuff to take for a spin).

I know Bard archetypes that give up Inspire Courage are usually looked down upon, but I think that a party with such limited armor options might appreciate an AC bump.

I figure I'll flavor him as a bit of a tribal outsider, who's both valued and feared for his divination abilities. Also, I think the whole "visions of the near future from nature" thing works well to explain Bardic Knowledge in a prehistoric setting. (Replace "I read this in a book somewhere!" with "I saw this in a dream once!" or some such like.)

Submissions so far:

Grod the Cunning (Human Hunter/Allosaurus)-Ouachitonian.

Gnarok (Elf Occultist)-Simeon.

Augrock Manyteeth (Half-Orc Barbarian)-Me'mori

Eskala Redmane (Human Pyrokineticist)-Delightful

Fanki (Human Soulbound Summoner/Kami)-Brainiac

Fade (human witch (herb witch))-Daniel Stewart

Sorry if I missed anyone.