Are we down to four of us now?
Roots, Nidintu, Halrod and Lani.
Druid, 2 Fighters and a Witch is still a solid party.
It is, but if we need another role, I can run a bard or rogue or cavalier or cleric or whatever. What do you think?
I have been thinking about reopening recruitment as well - what do you all think?
I think our current party composition is fine. Instead of a Recruitment, perhaps, someone just recruits a player that is....consistent.
@Halrod Roots feel safer having 2 Fighters in the group...lol. Between a Druid and a Witch, we should be OK on healing. Maybe one of our Fighters vers toward Medicine skill feats?Feats?
Although, Roots will take Herbalist dedication at 2nd too.
Quite frankly, some of the other submissions in the original recruitment thread seemed far better than mine - I think we'll have no trouble finding another good character or three.
How many slots are we thinking need to be filled? Seven people was large for the average party, but it takes a lot of people to manage a kingdom, and as seen with Nidintu and Halrod, even two characters of the same ancestry and class can fill different, distinct niches in both social situations and combat.
It's looking like we have three people who have or will have minor healing capabilities (Lani, Roots, who has claimed that he would prefer to be a combatant more than a healer, and Nidintu, who will be taking the Alchemist dedication but who I had planned to focus more on mutagens than elixirs of life), but it doesn't seem like any of them are going the "full healer" route. A rogue-type with the "assorted malfeasance" skill array may also be warranted - Nidintu has Stealth proficiency, but his "scouting" is more along the lines of House Steiner's "scouting with an Atlas" than anything approaching actual subtlety.
Adding new players is likely to be difficult right at the moment, as we are in the middle of a combat situation, but one of the good things about Kingmaker is that it's easy to add or remove players at any time: if Trevor86 isn't coming back (in which case we either need a new face or need Halrod to take over the role), Phoebe and Clementine may join another one of the adventurer groups, such as Maegar Varn, and at effectively any point, the party can encounter some semi-crazed hermit, wise ranger, or lost pilgrim, especially in a place like the Stolen Lands, and recruit them to our band.
Also, on a separate note, I was considering adjusting the characterization of my character, and I just wanted to check with everybody else before changing. I was hoping to de-emphasize the "Roget Thesaurus" aspect of Nidintu and focus him more on the "ex-bandit, River Kingdoms patriot with an extremely direct personality" aspect. I primarily wanted to check about de-emphasizing the wordiness, and if the other players prefer, I can keep it in my characterization.
Dude, you do you! I think our characters can grow and change over time both because that's what people do and because none of the PC's are human. Who's to say that a tiefling elf isn't mercurial and changeable?
House Steiner's "scouting with an Atlas"
Love the Battletech reference.
Also, I love Atlases. Screw subtlety - I have 100 tons of fiery robot death from above.
I may rework Lani as a cleric instead of a witch if allowed after this part of the adventure. That would give us more healing capabilities and make her a bit more effective than she is right now.
Feel free to rework your characters into something that is more enjoyable for you, if that is what you would like.
Another option is to DMPC one of the numerous companions to fill in anything the party might be missing mechanically. Personally, I enjoy running with larger, diverse parties. I was thinking about adding another player for a total of 5 (or 6, if Phoebe returns).
Let me know what you all think, I currently have another recruitment in progress for my other campaign, but that one should conclude shortly.
Also, I want to apologize for my absences and slowness lately. It has been a time of great upheaval and betrayal at work, so I have been distracted (and, honestly, pretty checked out of everything). I have put in my notice and I'm not in a hurry to find another job, so hopefully I will have more time and energy to dedicate to my games. On the other hand, there will be more short breaks as my partner and I are scouting the country for a potential future home base (read, buying a house).
Hey everyone,
I wanted to drop a note that I've as of friday last week finished my medical specialization and that the looming deadline of having to do tons of things next to work has finally lifted. As such I'm finally free to enjoy a bit of free time and writing time again, and I'd like to rejoin if possible. Though I have been absent a lot up to this point and would understand if you would instead prefer someone else.
Kind regards,
Phoebe
It's ultimately up to GM Eldest, but the post immediately preceding yours seemed to imply that you could rejoin, if you wished. For my part, I quite enjoyed your detailed and in-depth posts and contributions to the story, and I would be quite happy to have you back.
Hey gang!
I’m off to GenCon and won’t be online until I get back next week. And -then- my wife is having a baby, so expect my presence to be spotty for a bit!
Thanks for bearing with me.
Scott / Tarondor
Of course Phoebe can rejoin!
@Tarondor, enjoy GenCon, and best of luck to your wife with the delivery!
Have fun storming the Castle(s), Nursery and no sleep til Brooklyn !
Hey, gang. My newborn daughter is now a week old and her mother and I are exhausted. I’m returning now to my games, but please forgive me if I’m slow for awhile.
Congratulations Halrod! May she grow loving tales, song and gaming!
Congratulations! Hope she grows up happy and healthy!
Congratulations!
Just wanted to check: there was discussion of re-opening recruitment, but I was unsure as to if we were doing that and when it would happen. Alternatively/supplementally, Tarondor had offered to run a second character if need be, and I would like to put forth the same offer, if it is wanted/needed – I have Nidintu's fraternal twin Vanrith statted up as a bard, but could easily bring in a different character if another bard isn't needed.
Thank you for the reminder, I talked to Phoebe's player last night, and while they would like to rejoin the game at some point, right now they are very busy.
I am leaning towards recruiting one or two additional players, if you know anyone who would be a good fit please point them my way. I will do some asking around in my Pathfinder Discord servers as well.
So sorry my attendance has been spotty. I've had three hours of sleep in the last 24 and 3-4 hours been typical for weeks now. I'm still interested and my attendance will get better.
No worries, Halrod, life comes first. Hope things improve for you!
Horses for seven would be 14 GP, assuming a horse and a pony cost the same and bridles, saddles, etc, are included in the 2 GP price tag. I have updated the inventory tracker with this in mind - GM, please let me know if this is inaccurate. Also, if needed, we can buy one or two more - as "reserves" in-character, for the new players out of character.
Agreed! The 50gp is Party loot to be used for our venture. Horses and such is great!
We should have 2 spares.
Roots is strong, so....lol.
Let's go camping!
Let's say an additional 1 gp per horse for saddle, harness and feed for a week.
Purely for the record, Nidintu's horse's name is a clumsy portmanteau of rādāniš - as pelting rain - and iltānu - the North Wind. Thus, I envision it as having meant something like "relentless as the North Wind" back in in-game days of yore, though its meaning is likely lost.
Plus, it sounds cool.
We seem to have two concepts submitted by new applicants, if anyone has thoughts about either the characters or the players please PM me. I'll give it a couple of days, and if there are no objections I will invite the two players with a finished concept to the game.
Hi all, thanks so much for inviting me to the party. I had the ancient elf outwit ranger submission and would be more than happy to adjust the concept to fit the story and the party. Pathbuilder makes it easy to make changes! Maybe which faction they are aligned with would guide how they should be finalzied? They are very much a face/skill character with some magic utility and ranged attacks.
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Hey thanks for the invite as well!
Hopefully we aren't overdoing it on the face/skill situation between the three of us, I know all of us are making charisma focused characters.
I'm leaning more toward the Thaumaturge angle, but I also think the Bard would be really useful as a force multiplier with so many other PCs. The Bard might also be more useful to the party as an off-healer. In either case, I'm aiming to be a medium front-liner with high charisma and strength.
The advantages of the Thaumaturge would be immediate access to medium armor and Esoteric Lore being keyed off Charisma would make Orlov a useful combat knowledge guy. With Tome, it'd be useful out of combat too. With Regalia instead, Orlov could be the de facto face. But with Mirror, Amulet, or Weapon, I'd key more into the off-melee role.
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Story-wise, my main hook for Orlov is that he was cast out by his family for being so ugly and bringing bad fortune on the family. His father tried his best to keep him within the household for as long as he could out of guilt, but political pressures forced his hand.
Orlov's ambition is to prove himself and gain the acceptance of the nobility.
It's also possible his family's antagonizing faerie (as yet unnamed, could be a plot relevant fey) has sponsored or tasked him in some way. As another idea for more of a fey themed hook.
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Initially, I had named him Orlov Surtova, but it's a name that I imagine he may have been barred from using because so the family could distance him. I'm contemplating whether he's the type of person to introduce himself that way in spite of that, or if he'd keep it secret until it becomes important.
EDIT: In that vein, what do you think about an ASoIaF styled bastard name being something like 'Rivers'?
Welcome GM Stargin and Kubular and Simeon!
Whatever you feel belongs in this Fea Pack, then go for it!
Roots-Sink-Deep is technically a Caster Druid. He has Heal prepared but limited at 1st.
I had planned to take Herbalist dedication at 2nd to help with healing, although he does not want to become the healer.
He is young, brave to a fault and only 3 months old...lol.
Howdy folks, thanks for the invite!
Eskra and Carageorn are a charisma primal caster and melee striker, respectively.
Eskra's built pretty well towards a face role.
Welcome to the new players!
Please start thinking what brings your characters to either Restov (or its vicinities), or to the Stolen Lands, and what could be your hook for joining the Fae Pack.
If you haven't had time to read the gameplay thread, here's a tl;dr:
All of the original members of the Fae Pack have some sort of connection to the fey, and have been summoned to the First World and given a secret mission to establish a fey-friendly domain in the Stolen Lands. There are other fey factions, at least one of which is actively opposing the faction backing our adventurers.
Directed to Restov, the Fae Pack survived a night-time attack and assassination attempt at Lady Jamandi Aldori's manor and received a provisional charter to deal with banditry in the Greenbelt. The recommended starting point is Oleg's Trading Post.
The party has just left Restov and is heading west towards Nivatka's Crossing, a village along the road towards the Stolen Lands, on the border of Brevoy.
@Kubular: since House Surtova's original holdings are around Port Ice, I think a bastard name would be something like Snow, Ice, or Lake.
That fits really well with the backstory I've established for Eskra and Carageorn!
Carageorn is or might be an exiled fey noble who's nearly obsessed with rebuilding the nobility he once had with some sort of premonition about the Stolen Lands as a promising opportunity for that quest.
Eskra, for their part, thinks running a kingdom could be quite a bit of fun.
@GM Eldest Re: names
Oh true, dunno why I didn't think of that!
Well, I can't do Snow, we've already seen that before. Orlund Frost has a nice ring to it. We can workshop it maybe.
Thanks for the tl;dr, that's super helpful.
I might want to build him as a cleric after thinking about party composition. We might be fine without if there are enough medicine kits around, but it feels like we might be in a lot of pain without a healer.
Going Bard might be enough healing between Soothe and having other characters with Battle Medicine.
It likewise might be good enough to just mitigate damage with Amulet Thaumaturge.
But also, since Eskra is also trying to fill a face role, I think having diverse roles would be useful to the party, both mechanically and role-play-wise. A healer is an as-yet unfilled one.
Ooh, could Orlund be a cleric of an Eldest? It could be the fey in his backstory that cursed him long ago as a form of indentured servitude to try to pay off his (and his family's) karmic debt. Or an enemy of the one who cursed Orlund. Could be Shyka the Many, the Lost Prince, or Imbrex, as Eldest who could fit the concept that I already have down.
Still thinking it through. Just airing my thoughts out loud and hand-wringing in public for a bit.
I think Orlund's backstory as I currently have it can lend itself pretty well to most classes.
EDIT: I think I'll need a deadline so I can stop waffling on things. Any particular timeline you're thinking of?
That's a really cool idea for a cleric! Rather than serving because you want to, serving because you have to. Oracle might be another class that'd work well for that kinda vibe, and lets you go for a nonspecific or non-deific fey.
Glad to have you with us, GM Stargin! I do have one small mechanical concern with your character build - GM Eldest had earlier stated that this would be using the free archetype rules, which conflict with the Ancient Elf heritage - you can't take anything but a dedication at Level 2 because you're too low-level, and you can't take a dedication because of the restrictions on multiclassing, so you're kind of stuck for an archetype feat at 2nd level, unless GM Eldest wants to bend the rules.
Simeon, excited to play with you! With a large party like this, another melee striker would be appreciated, and it's hard to have too many face builds in a RP-heavy game.
Kubular, glad you're here! In terms of fey deities, Ng is always an interesting one - as a deity of secrets, he's quite literally a god of needlessly complex machinations and seemingly meaningless tasks. Alternatively, your character seems to see his conquering of the Stolen Lands as a sort of exile - perhaps Count Ranalc?
Cleric/oracle of an Eldest? Intriguing idea. Personally, I'd be mindful of making too tragic of a character though, so if you are going with a warlock-style pact, there should be a great benefit for Orlund. Otherwise, the ones you listed and Count Ranalc would all make good patrons.
We'll figure something our for GM Stargin's build, perhaps a general feat at level 2 instead of a dedication feat? Open to ideas here.
In terms of deadline for finalizing builds, let's say end of this week, if that works for everyone. You can jump into the gameplay thread before then to meet the rest of the group and introduce your characters.
Hey, all. Unfortunately, I think I am going to bow out of the game at this time. I've been finding it hard to connect to my character for whatever reason, and I'm already currently running two Kingmaker games on the boards, so I'm happy to make room for somebody else to experience the story. GM Eldest, thank you for the fun game, and I hope you all continue to enjoy it!
Thank you for playing!
Hey, this is GM Stargin's alias for the elf ranger. I'm open to ideas on how to make Ancient Elf work with Free Archetype, it is essentially a free class feat one way or the other so maybe Xavin can get that until the rogue dedication is used up and then proceeding as normal?
Xavin's (They/Them) motivations are pretty simple, they're very well regarded in the first world Fey courts and Kyonin's nobility. They're seeking to strengthen both realms by making the Stolen Lands a friendly place for both in Golarion. If they can find something to threaten TreeRazer with then all the better.
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Sorry to see you go before getting to know you Lani! I hope things in your other games go well.
End of the week sounds good.
I'll agree with you on trying to avoid being too tragic. You might need to check me on that because I have a tendency to skew that way with characters. In either case, I see Orlund being just as greedily ambitious as his patron, something that Imbrex seems to identify with. I like Ranalc as the fey patron of exiles though. Ng seems to be a good one for being especially mischievous.
I'm still flip-flopping in the brain. I'm still kind of thinking about one of those other classes, and Oracle seems pretty cool.
Roots-Sink-Deep may be our only Caster now?
I’m a caster too! Limited in scope, but still a caster. I’ll have my aliases for Eskra and Carageorn ready soon, probably today or tomorrow.
Alrighty, here's Eskra...
...and here's Carageorn!
Here's the Discord invite.
Once you have joined the server, I'll ping the server admin to get you into the proper channel.
Here's the alias for Orlund, I'm sat at a cafe right now working on writing for him. But for a little extra flavor, I'm thinking the unicorn horn manifests as a horn, but in a twisted assymetric unfortunate sort of way.
I dunno if I should have just put this in my post, but I think it could be common knowledge for Brevic(?) citizens that northern persons born out of wedlock (aka bastards) would be given the surname Frost. Yes straight lifted from our favorite gritty fantasy series. I did discuss that up here with GM Eldest/kittenmancer a few posts ago but I just wanted to put it up here again for clarity.
Whoever's from Brevoy basically would probably have heard it before, people who've spent time in and around Brevoy might have, and persons from elsewhere might not have.
Maybe a knowledge (local) check if you want to randomly check whether your character would know that.