Far to the north in the Stormspear Hills, near the Crown of the World, the humble village of Hame has suffered strange attacks this winter. White creatures have walked right out of the snowstorms and slammed villagers to the ground, breaking their bones and chilling them with frostbite before the rallying villagers have been able to smash them into many shards.
The desperate villagers send a rider begging for aid, spreading the news. A small group of experts answers the call, ready to investigate and put an end to the threat.
This will be a homebrew oneshot. There will be some investigation and a moderate-length dungeon crawl taking place over the course of one adventuring day. Different degrees of success are possible ranging from TPK, partial success and retreat, to total success. Be ready for traps, stuck doors, wandering monsters, a time limit, puzzles, etc.
5th level
Any Paizo class. Spheres of Power and Might also allowed
Any Paizo races <= 20 race points
25 pt buy
2 traits (campaign traits may be allowed upon request)
Background skills are in effect
Max HP at level 1 then average rounded up at each level thereafter. Animal companion etc., hp works as normal (average at each level, rounding down the total).
10,500 gp worth of equipment. Pre-crafting allowed but without any further wealth generation hacks (e.g., no blood money, no hedge magician, etc.). Pre-crafting for party members allowed if you have shared backstory.
Give me a sense of who your character is, why they have the skills represented by 5 adventuring levels, what their motivation is, and why they are in the Stormspear Hills. You might be a local or a traveler. Also, make it clear why you would answer a small village's call for help. Bonus points for shared backstory with one or more other applicants.
Everyone will be expected to post once per weekday and once per weekend. I will bot/skip PCs that don't act in a timely fashion since PBP momentum is monarch.
Maps will be hosted on roll20. Mostly, they will be minimalistic maps but I might throw in one or two pretty ones.
Here's the non-traditional element: I have an itch to play with Spheres. So I am hoping to recruit a capable GM to play in my game and then run a similar, second oneshot for me and whomever else they wish to recruit after this. Spheres of Power and Might, regular posting, and some sort of visual battle map (roll20, google slides, whatever) are my requests. Anything else would be totally up to the second GM. If you are interested in this, let me know and tell me something about your GMing and what you would like to run. If I pick you to be my second GM, you would be guaranteed a party spot in this first game.
Recruitment closes at 9 am EST on Saturday, May 14th.
Dotting for interest, and calling dibs on being the party's tough frontliner. I'm definitively making use of one of the Unarmed spheres, though I really have no idea which or what else I'm building outside of that.
Sounds like a fun concept!
There's interest from some people who like to play on Discord instead of Paizo (roll20 for maps regardless). So when you apply, post here if you are fine with either platform with no preference, fine with either with a preference, or only fine with one platform. I don't care either way and will make a consensus decision when I pick the party.
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Hello I am interested in this, though I do not have much experience in pbp. I also would be interested in being a second GM, in a rotating or shared situation. I am not interested in replacing you as the GM if that is what you are getting at but a rotating GM situation is something that I have been hoping to try for a while.
I have a massive preference for Discord as a platform and would probably not be able to be a second DM on forums.
Hicho#4043 on discord and have spoke in that thread
Hi, I applied for this on Discord as well (Silver Rose *8298) but I thought I'd throw in my interest here as well! I have an idea for a rogue/crimson assassin that I think would be pretty interesting. I'd prefer to play on Discord, as I use that more often (: I can post very regularly, and I have a little DM experience. I prefer to play but I could DM if really needed.
Hello! I definitely mean a rotating GM thing where I run this game then I would appreciate someone running a game for me.
Cool!
Everyone: It looks (from this and my discord messages) like we'll have more interest than players I can take so I'll have to pick. So please link me to a character sheet and a short backstory of about 6 medium length sentences or more. Also, let me know your vote of playing on Discord vs Paizo. I'll take these preferences into account to pick a party that all plays on the same platform.
Have fun everyone! Spheres of power is a lot of fun. There are so many great options in there. I’ll be lurking to see what you all make.
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Thanks, Grumbaki! Always nice to see you around.
To those new to PBP, if we keep the posting consistent, the game will take like 5-7months (rough estimate based on similar PBP games I've run in the past). That's just how it works since a minimum posting rate of one post per weekday and one per weekend isn't super fast. I wanted people to know that so they are OK with signing up for how slow PBP can be. That's the cost of extreme schedule flexibility. On the bright side, you also have time to write a nice post with good flavor, think strategically for your turn, etc. And you get to play a tiny bit of Pathfinder pretty much every day.
And you as well! If by any chance the people who got here first don’t bring forth enough PCs then I’d happily jump in.
I have no problem with either format, though personally, I do lean towards Forum PBP than Discord. Maybe it's just me, but Discord doesn't exactly feel like a platform for it. It's good for chat-oriented purposes and such, but longer form RP? I'm not so sure.
Again, not a dealbreaker, just my two cents.
Got a somewhat goofy striker/hekatonkheires symbiat build in the works. I’d much prefer Discord for play.
I've run and still run successful PBP games on both platforms. They have their pros and cons. For example, Discord tends to favor rapid posting but people write somewhat shorter posts with less RP.
Yeah, maybe it's just me being an old fart. Discord also makes it easier to post from mobile, which would help avoiding my boss' gaze at work and give me something to do while stuck in a traffic jam.
Still plenty of spots and time to get your sheets together, folks!
Well then, I'll put something in! Really not a fan of discord, for what it's worth. Putting some thoughts together
Class: Armorist
Archetype: Martial Armorist
Or maybe this archetype: Vajrahasta
Martial Tradition: Wandering Martial Artist
* Equipment: Force Redirection Technique: You may use your Strength modifier in place of your Dexterity modifier to AC, up to a maximum of 3 + half of your base attack bonus. Characters who gain Climb or Swim as a class skill may instead choose to have the cap increase by +1 for every 2 ranks in the listed class skill they possess. Your bonus to AC is still affected by anything that would limit or remove your Dexterity modifier to AC such as wearing armor or being flat-footed. You may disable or enable Force Redirection Technique as a free action at the start of your turn, once per turn.
* Unarmored Training: Your deft movements, physical conditioning, and expert use of your chosen weapons allow you to create a protective barrier around yourself as effective as any true suit of armor. When unarmored and unencumbered, you gain a +3 armor bonus to your AC. This bonus increases by +1 for every 3 points of base attack bonus you possess. Characters who gain Acrobatics as a class skill may instead choose to have the armor bonus increase by +1 for every 3 ranks in the Acrobatics skill they possess. This bonus to AC applies even against touch attacks or when you are flat-footed. You lose these bonuses when you are immobilized or helpless, when you wear any armor, or when you carry a medium or heavy load. These bonuses do not stack with the AC bonus class feature of the monk or similar abilities.
Variable: Wandering martial artists gain either one (discipline) talent of their choice or the Improved Unarmed Strike feat as a bonus feat.
* Variable: Athletics Sphere - Swim with always forward for strong lungs
* Custom Discipline: Proficiency in battleaxe, greataxe, greatsword, longsword and warhammer.
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Taken together what does this do? Well, as an armorist he can summon his own weapons as a swift action. So never unarmed. Given that he can only summon a weapon or armor, I went with unarmored training to represent him being able to summon armor as well.
At lvl 5, he has +4 AC from unarmored training, +5 AC from strength and +2 AC from armored magic. That is a base of 21 right there, before equipment.
And of course he can summon a greatsword and go to work with it. More details to come later.
Grumbaki: Just to be clear, knowing your history, that you mean you would play on Paizo but not on Discord, right? The alternative is that you mean you would play on either but prefer Paizo, but I know you really, really hate Discord.
Aye. But if others want discord, then I'm free to give the spot to someone else.
I think I'm settled on a Stancemaster Armiger. The Prodigy's Sequence ability is, putting it bluntly, just way too damn cool not to try out, but I wanna steer away from the magic spheres out of principle. Us martials gotta stick together!
I'm on the fence about making a fistfighter or a fencer though. I'll keep crunching builds.
Grumbaki here. Profile is slowly being filled out and backstory is taking shape. Sharing your show progress. As of now, this PC is coming out to be a fairly scary frontliner. Quite enjoying having someone with no armor, Str22 Dex10 who also has AC26.
The only “issue” so far is that his reflex save is atrocious. That, and I’m going back and forth on which combat and spell spheres to focus on. Probably choosing life sphere. It’s just useful to have so that the front liner is also a healer. But destruction is also looking good….
Sigmundr was born in the Lands of the Linnorn Kings. He never knew his father, for the man was a pirate who went out to sea and never returned. This was a fact of life for many within the small town that he was born in. As such, he grew up on tales of his father's adventurers, told by his often drunk comrades who would raise a toast to the man whenever they saw his son. To his mother's distress, Sigmundr idealized his father, whom in his eyes was the epitome of what an ulfen should be. It came as a surprise to none that when he came of age he took to sea, eager to raid the coasts of the world for glory and plunder.
This life went on for many a year. Sigmundr was tall, even by the standard of his people, and even moreso was large. Ulfen warriors were known throughout the world for their strength, but even among them Sigmundr stood out for the raw power that he exuded. That, and the dark look in his eyes that accompanied his joy for bloodshed. While there were no outward appearances, he had within him oni-blood, which only served to heighten his physicality and his desire to cause destruction. Given the predilection of his blood and the culture that he came from, his choice of profession was clear for all to see.
Such a life would have continued until he met his father's fate, if not for his dreams. As the days turned into months and the months into years, the same dream would come to him again and again. In his dream there was a white-bearded dwarf, armor torn and rent, fighting atop the Crown of the World against a horrific Oni. In his dream the two killed each other, with the dwarf lopping off of the Oni's head and burying his axe into it's skull, even as he succumbed to his own wounds. The dream felt *real* beyond imagining, and it came with a burning desire to travel towards the location where both lay. Of course, his crewmates refused to make such a journey, to chase a dream into the icy wilderness without any other profit to shot for it. Thus, he left them and his seafaring days behind and journeyed north. North ever onwards.
To say that it was an adventure would be an understatement. For the Oni, slain many centuries ago, had spread it's seed far and wide. When it had fallen, it's very essence had been trapped by the axe of the dwarven hero who slew it. An essence which could not escape so long as the axe remained lodged in it's skull. As such, it used it's abyssal power to call out to any who shared it's blood, willing them to come and accept their birthright. That is, to be possessed and consumed by the Oni, so that it might take their body and walk the world again. Sigmundr was but one in a long line of heroes and villains who had tried and failed to find this resting place. However, unlike those who came before, he succeeded.
Standing at the spot that had plagued his dreams for so long, the ulfen warrior trudged over and began to dig through the snow. What he found was the body of the lost and forgotten dwarven hero, lying beside an Oni's skull with a magnificent axe lodged within it. Heeding the call of his blood, he ripped the axe free...
...what occurred was a battle of wills which he would have lost. That is, if not for the axe. For the axe was an ancient relic of a bygone age, which held within it it's own intelligence. Designed specifically for the task of dealing with outsiders as evil as this, the blade lent it's will to that of Sigmundr. His screams echoed along the empty wastes, as he fought a battle within his mind against his Oni progenitor for his very soul.
At long last he fell to his knees, a changed man. The Oni had lost, it's very essence consumed by Sigmundr so that it became part of him. And so too did the axe. Just as the axe had bound the Oni into it's skull, now it bound the Oni within Sugmundr. It was him and he was it, and the axe was likewise bound to him.
This created something of a dichotomy. Sigmundr was a warrior. A raider. A pillager. A murderer. He was a man who took what he wanted because might made right. But the axe? The axe had a mind of it's own, and a will that was greater than his. It was designed to protect the people of the mortal world against the many evils that would plague them. It was a weapon fit only for the hands of a hero. And heroism is what the axe demanded.
Now Sigmundr finds himself continuing to wander the lands. He searches for glory. He revels in spilling blood. Only now, the desire to right wrongs, to slay evils and to protect the innocent wars within him. He has found that the only way to avoid the mental anguish of fighting the great will of the blade is to find ways to meet both of their needs. For it truly is possible to spill blood, earn coin, and to slay evil at the same time. As such, with the humble village of Hame calling for aid, he has answered the call. He hopes that this will lead to both he, and his axe, being satisfied.
Angradd’s Fury
Forged when the dwarves finished the Quest for Sky, this axe contains the essence of a lantern archon in the service of Angradd. The deity aggressively seeks out threats to eliminate, and this weapon was designed to allow one of his servants to remain indefinitely in the mortal world so that it might do just that. It holds within it an undying thirst for justice, and to violently end any and all threats. Especially those from the outer planes. The archon within is more than happy to be wielded by heroes, though thus far Sigmundr has left something to be desired. Still, the life of a mortal man is short, especially by the reckoning of an immortal spirit. And at the very least the human was proven to be strong of arm and pliable of mind, two qualities which the blade has deemed sufficient in allowing itself to be wielded.
And there we go! Sigmundr has magical powers, because of his axe. With his casting tradition he needs to have his axe in hand to do any magical powers and when spells are cast, the runes on the axe glow, making it obvious as towards what is causing the magic. He also cannot use armor or a shield, for the axe provides it's own protection to him.
Given his obvious size and strength, his combat style is brute sphere through and through. Start off by using the axe for a slap, as a melee touch attack, to do fairly substantial damage (2d6+15). Follow up with a standard attack using the destruction sphere, which can do 1d10+1d8+2d6+18 damage. Twice a day he can add a further 1d6 to both thanks to arcane pool from his blade and he can spend a spell point to turn the 1d8 into a 2d8. Yes, that is alot of dice. No, he won't ever use iterative attacks. But he will eventually go down the vital strike chain. Besides for that? AC25 is tanky enough for lvl5, he can heal people for 2d8+2 per spell point, and with cold/fire resist 7, he is functionally immune to mundane heat and cold. All in all, a pretty tough guy.
As for his personality? He is not a good person. But he is forced (more or less) to be one by his axe. His upbringing, experiences in life, and the Oni within him would have made him into a true villain but-for the intelligent axe which demands heroism. It is fortunate for all coastal settlements that life turned out the way it did.
And there we go! Really enjoyed making this character and looking into all of the different sphere talents, archetypes and various options.
Bit slammed with finals, but I've substantially changed my concept to being a gathlain fey adept.
Hopefully by Monday I'll have my character ready.
Completed:
JoyDriver: Kitsune spherecaster, face, and charmer. I'm not clear on their Discord/Paizo preference as they suggested a hybrid.
Grumbaki: Tiefling armorist frontliner with some casting. Will only play on Paizo
Silver Rose: Dhampir rogue. Would prefer to play on Discord but sounds like they would also play on Paizo? Please clarify.
Interest:
A bunch of others.
Recruitment is originally scheduled to close on Saturday, May 14th, at 9 am. I will likely extend this to allow more submissions since this was a pretty short recruitment period.
For anyone who hasn’t done spheres of power before, I’d be happy to help walk through some of it. It’s a really fun system for pathfinder.
Anticipated start date? My internet access will be spotty for the last half of the month.
Neat on retraining. It’s something that can really only be done with enough time in your backstory devoted to it, but if you can pull it off then it’s a big chunk of HP. How much did it cost you all together?
Also look forward to seeing your final build. You obviously put a lot of thought into it, so it’ll be enjoyable to see what the final product is. (I love making characters, so it’s enjoyable to see what others come up with)
Anticipated start date is right after recruitment closes.
I'm settled on a build, which I lovingly call the "town drunk" after a lot of fumbling with the system.
To give an idea, with the combination of AC bonus, Force Redirection Technique and Unarmored Training, this guy has 23 AC, 23 Touch, and 18 FF (even though he can't be caught flat-footed), and when he attacks, he gains a +2 to his AC from the Boxing sphere's Tight Guard. It all goes away as soon as he gets immobilized though, straight down to 10, so he's one failed save away from becoming a statue. I think that's quite fitting for a stumbling drunk build xD
But of course, this doesn't come with an equally as fun character concept to play as: true to the build name, the character will be the town's resident bum. Once part of an actual adventuring group before figuring out the life of danger and all that wasn't for him, he decided to retire and use the wealth he gained from it all to fuel a bohemian lifestyle. As the money ran out, he eventually went from traveling the world, to traveling locally, to sightseeing around his hometown of Hame... to sightseeing around the streets, homeless, as his fighting skills and sanity atrophied over the years. When the news of this new threat around Hame met his ears, he immediately sprang to life and offered to aid with the efforts to repel it, after all, this could be a threat to his new lifestyle.
I'm almost done with the crunch. I do think it's not as optimized as it could be due to my lack of knowledge about the system, but it lends itself to a very solid build, especially when the sequences and tension stack up and I net the flat bonuses to damage and hitting. Fun stuff!
Neat on retraining. It’s something that can really only be done with enough time in your backstory devoted to it, but if you can pull it off then it’s a big chunk of HP. How much did it cost you all together?990GP for 10 HP, so almost exactly 100GP/HP.
Also look forward to seeing your final build. You obviously put a lot of thought into it, so it’ll be enjoyable to see what the final product is. (I love making characters, so it’s enjoyable to see what others come up with)Thanks! Looking forward to seeing yours as well. I've played an armorist (blaster archetype) and it's a really fun class, it'll be fun to see what your take on it is!
That’s actually not a bad deal on hp.
As for mine? here he is. Blackblade and unarmored. So he’ll probably play pretty differently.
Completed:
JoyDriver: Kitsune spherecaster, face, and charmer. Would most prefer a Paizo/Discord hybrid but it sounds like they would play on either platform.
Grumbaki: Tiefling armorist frontliner with some casting. Will only play on Paizo.
Silver Rose: Dhampir rogue. Strongly prefers Discord.
Dawson: Aasimar unchained monk. I'm not clear on their preference but they certainly seem ok with Discord.
Hicho: Human spheres paladin. Not clear yet on Paizo/Discord preference.
Getting close:
Simeon and Qyntessential.
There is a small chance I will extend the recruitment but I would strongly recommend that anyone who wants to play maximize their chances by getting crunch and backstory to me by tomorrow morning at 9 am Pittsburgh time.
Here is Qyntessential's submission, and the background to go with it.
Though most adventurers are fated for greatness, either through divine birthright, a legacy passed down to them, or sheer force of destiny-shifting will... Jaime had no such thing to aid him through his life. Merely a man blessed with a sixth-sense for getting into scraps and a pair of vicious knuckles to get him out of them, Jaime was roped into the life of adventuring for the simple reason of boredom and a need for money in order to... well, live. And for all his flaws, for all the headaches he went through, and for all the remedied lack of outside help, he did manage to get pretty good at beating down the evils that ail the world, so much so that he earned a name for himself in Taldor during the prime of his life.
But, this life of chasing the next big bad evil of the land, of knocking down great beasts and such, it was all quite jarring for Jaime. Taken from the simple life at a farm by his rise to adventure, Jaime was never the sort to wish for glory and recognition and the status that came with the profession. Always the ascetic that relied on his power and will alone, Jaime felt taht the more he sought this life of adventure, the more he longed for the simple, pleasant existence of a peasant. And thus, eventually, when the time to take down the next would-be ascendant god of the land... Jaime refused, and retired from the adventuring life altogether.
Accruing enough wealth to last him a lifetime of simple living, Jaime decided to instead dedicate himself to travelling the world, seeing what Golarion had to offer all throughout its extensive landscape. Years went by, his fighting skills atrophying and the magic of his once powerful items fading, as he first spent his gold on simple pleasures, but slowly, ever so slowly, bled the riches he'd gathered until they were no more. Travels through the world had become trips throughout his homeland, which in turn became a senseless wander through towns... until finally, he could afford to leave his home village of Hame no more.
Yet, he wasn't unhappy. In fact, the ascetic, mundane life of living as a vagrant, after all the bombastic rush of adventuring, felt more like home than anything else. Dirty and muddied as he was, Jaime became unrecognizable from the paragon of might he once was, and instead spent his days drinking amongst the farmers and shopkeepers and everyone who would partake in a cheer with him. Even adopting himself a new name, "Mad Dog" as a callback to his previous lifetime as a bruiser, Jaime seemed happy to spend the remainder of his days in squalor...
...That is, until he'd heard screams in the night near the cot he'd been using to sleep in during the last few months. Second nature to him despite all the years, Jaime raced to the scene and found the creatures already attacking an innocent family. And, though his instincts were there, his bones, his senses, and his muscles weren't used to fighting after all the years he'd spent away from the sweet science, earning him a beating that only ceased when more militia was rallied to repel the creatures. By then, the family was already dead, with nothing to be done by Jaime or the town's healer.
Angry, but more so than that, disappointed in himself for allowing such a thing to happen, Jaime's wish of living away from combat eroded. He felt it was his duty, as an adventurer of yesteryear, to defend the village he'd call home. Resolve renewed despite a failing body, Jaime put himself to training and fighting as soon as he was healed from the encounter with the white creatures, trying to force the strength of the past to resurface enough to face this threat and put an end to it once and for all. It was time for him to defend what was precious to him, and thus, Jaime joined the force sent to investigate and deal with the threat, despite the doubts of the vilagers and Jaime himself about his capability to fight.
Recruitment closed. The game is starting!
Qyntessential, Grumbaki, Joy Driver, Silver Rose, Dawson, and Hicho please report to the discord.