Carrion Crown (private)

Game Master Whack-a-Rogue

Post everything out-of-character here. This is also a great spot for introductions. ;-)

This is a sample profile. You're not required to use this format, but I thought it might be helpful. The information in the "Vitals" spoiler is important to include in your profile header, though, so make sure to incorporate that somewhere.
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For your backstory, all of you have some sort of connection to Professor Petros Lorrimor, whose funeral draws you to the small town of Ravengro.

Hello all! I am YBD's wife, Garnet. I go by They/Them pronouns. Im so excited to be playing with you all! A little bit about myself:

I have played Pathfinder and other TTRPGs since my teens, and I love TTRPGs and roleplaying. Both are a huge special interest to me. I have been married to YBD for 10 1/2 years, and during that time, I have played in many of his campaigns. I am a freelance writer currently working on a project for a gaming company, and I love every minute of it! I hope to find more opportunities to write for games in the future, but I'm enjoying the ride right now.

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duskwalker soul weaver even before I presented the various campaign options.

NO I wasn't thinking magus for Kingmaker or Soul weaver for Carrion Crown, not at all :)

But I do think I'll try the magus class. I just need to work on the particulars and a backstory. A while back I had put together a DHAMPIR Magus, would that be ok?

Edit Oh, hi I'm RH if you want the full, 'this is why I'm here' I typed this a while back.

Glad to be here! Really, couldn’t be happier. :)

If you're wanting to play a dhampir, Ustalav is the best region for it. They aren't common, but they're very much a known entity - although still seen as monsters by the general population.

Ninja'd by YBD, will edit

ok, doing EST here, so headed to bed soon, I'll catch up in the morning. I'm seriously looking at a dex build Magus. Any chance we're going Gestalt :)

If not, I'm happy to build Sariel to also deal with traps, unless someone is jonesing to play a rogue. Before we get locked in to exactly what we're doing would it be ok if we synergize a little?

Nice to be gaming with you Garnet and TLL.

Edit: Yeah, I figured that, it's like only playing a gnoll in Legacy of Fire.

I dotted and deleted with Sariel in the game thread, so he is on the 'player page' if you want to take a look at his backstory, in that iteration he is gestalt and entering a game at fourth level, fortunately he didn't get excepted. I'll drop the wizard half and start building him with your system in the morning. Not that I haven't been looking at stuff the last several minutes.

Hey y'all, pleasure to be here! I'm not sure what I'm doing but ya gal's ready to bloody up some baddies! Nice to meetcha!

@Robert Henry: We have four PCs, so there's no need for Gestalt. We're going to keep character creation simple. :-) Speaking of character creation, I really like my version of the Magus, but it's a little complicated due to the ever-changing "potential pool." It might be easier to keep track of it at the bottom of your posts during combat.

Hey y'all, pleasure to be here! I'm not sure what I'm doing but ya gal's ready to bloody up some baddies! Nice to meetcha!

@Robert Henry: We have four PCs, so there's no need for Gestalt. We're going to keep character creation simple. :-) Speaking of character creation, I really like my version of the Magus, but it's a little complicated due to the ever-changing "potential pool." It might be easier to keep track of it at the bottom of your posts during combat.

Well couldn't hurt to ask :)

I'll double check on the potential pool, I've started keeping a 'spoiler' at the bottom in one game, might go with that here.

Ive decided to go Duskwalker Witch, so @Robert Henry , you are free to play soul weaver!

So Ive got my character pretty much finished, just gotta pick some magic talents and a feat. Ill finish up tomorrow. :)

Edit:: Just pretend my avatar has a masquerade mask on. lol

Grumbaki here:

Sariel: Duskwalker Witch (Dreams)
Shae: Dhampir Magus (Death)
Sorsul: Fetchling darkshaper (Darkness)

I don’t think that steps on anyone’s toes?

* Basic Background: Native of Shadow Absalon. Heavily indebted to an Umbral Dragon. In its mercy it offers all that it owns the chance to earn their freedom, so long as they pay back what is owed. Thus far, all he has earned has been just enough to pay interest and to avoid being eaten. On behalf of his master he delivered packages to Absalon, and that was where he met Professor Petros Lorrimor. The professor agreed to smuggle him away in a manner from which his master would be unable to track him as a ‘favor’ that would be repaid at a later date. He readily accepted, and soon found himself in Ustalav. He has waited in Ustalav since then, filled with anxiety as towards either being found by his no doubt furious master, or the Professor calling in the favor…

* ‘Making good on promises’ campaign trait.
* Full BaB class, uses Cha for hit and damage. Manifests his shadow into weapons.
* At Lvl 1 only have a 1d4 damage attack. At Lvl 2 taking the Arsenal trick “shifting weapon” so his shadow can take the form of any weapon. At Lvl 6 he will be able loot use it two handed, or I might take the dual wielding sphere for the extra attack. At Lvl 11 his shadow can carry a shield as well.
* Magic will, of course, focus on the Dark Sphere.
* Dedicated Duelist Martial Tradition. Fencing sphere with unarmored training (shadow armor).
- Move action feint (fast feint)
- Standard action attack
- Swift action shadow residual (can cast talent ‘shadow lurk’ to take over the enemy’s shadow. I plan to take it twice so the shadow can fight for me, and if it is destroyed it stuns the enemy!)
- Thereafter Swift action attack (feint strike when he gets it)
- Eventually taking clinging darkness. That way he can give himself a fetchling Miss chance due to darkness, without hurting the party.

Doesn’t have the raw hitting power of a rage prophet Barbarian or a ranger (can’t even use both hands to attack until lvl6!). But he will be flexible in his weapon choices, and making copies of enemies from their shadows sounds like fun.

Anyways, does this work?

Shae: Duskwalker Witch (Dreams)

Sariel: Dhampir Magus (Death)
Sorsul: Fetchling darkshaper (Darkness)

I had to go look up what a Darkshaper was, But an armorist Archetype, what's not to love?

Ive decided to go Duskwalker Witch, so @Robert Henry , you are free to play soul weaver!

ಠ_ಠ

Garnet, I hope my post wasn't influential on your choice. I'd built Sariel as a Magus previously, so altering him to one in YBD's system would be pretty straight forwards. My comment about soul weaver was more based on realizing what a diverse class it could be and peaked my interest.

I'll work on both classes mechanically to fit Sariel's back story, then decide based on what TLL wants to build.

Garnet, I hope my post wasn't influential on your choice. I'd built Sariel as a Magus previously, so altering him to one in YBD's system would be pretty straight forwards. My comment about soul weaver was more based on realizing what a diverse class it could be and peaked my interest.

Oh no, it didn't! I decided to be a witch cause I wanted to do dream witch shenanigans. lol

Sweet, once we sort out what general direction TLL is going, I'll settle on one or the other. Sitting here prepping both of them just in case. I'm not going to change his backstory. Either way, he'll be raised a Pharasmin and meet the professor as a curiosity.

Edit: YBD, if I go magus it will be with the kensai archetype and I'll create my own Martial tradition starting with Unarmored Training. To use an estoc as his 'Single weapon' would he have to have a Martial tradition that taught it, or can it be from the kensai tradition?

If that's possible I would go:
Pharasmin Expedition Spotter
Martial Tradition: (equipment): Unarmored Training
Martial Tradition: Trap sphere (Dismantler drawback)
Martial Tradition: Variable: Gain either the Duelist or Fencing sphere
Martial Tradition: Variable: Gain talent of their choice from the trap sphere or the sphere selected.

@Grumbaki: That sounds fun. Thanks to RH, I know all about how effective a feinting build can be. ;-)

@Robert Henry: You'd have estoc proficiency through the kensai archetype, so you wouldn't need a martial tradition that teaches it. However, if you're creating a custom martial tradition, don't forget that there needs to be at least one [discipline] talent, Armor Training, or Shield Training. In other words, each martial tradition must have at least one proficiency-granting talent for balance purposes.

TLL is busy building her character, but she's settled on a black catfolk Rage Prophet Barbarian. Berserker sphere + Destruction: Energy Strike and the Spell Attack feat = high single-strike damage.

EDIT: I just realized that the entire party consists of 'exotic races.' That's honestly really fun and actually makes my job slightly easier for the beginning of the campaign. ;-)

Omg guys! I took the life sphere with the instill drawback. I make candies to heal you all. Im so excited for this. I love this character.

My build is near completion. Changed Sorsul to be female because I wanted a white skinned, white haired and white eyed picture and this is the best I could find. Also changed her background to entertainer, as I picture her earning a living before this performing with her shadow. Story telling with her dancing and interacting with a shadow counterpart to tell tales of her hometown. Mechanically not as good as the others but I liked the feel of it.

Also…healing candies? That is awesome. Very flavorful for a witch, if you excuse the pun.

And finally?

Duskwalker Witch (Dreams)
Dhampir Magus (Death)
Fetchling Darkshaper (Shadows)
Black Cat Rage Prophet (Cursed)

As far as a party goes the theme is great! I had actually been considering a black cat rage prophet myself, so I’m really glad to see one being run. :)

Also what’s our starting gold?

TLL is busy building her character, but she's settled on a black catfolk Rage Prophet Barbarian. Berserker sphere + Destruction: Energy Strike and the Spell Attack feat = high single-strike damage.

Since they are going more melee oriented I will make Sariel a Soul Weaver, though I am going to stick with the Dual Channeler

Here's where I'm at on drawbacks: Center Of Power, Verbal Casting, Somatic @ 2, witchedmarked. I want to lean into being part vampire, the center of power will be his fangs or eyes, the witchmark will be he looks paler and gaunter, like a vampire as he casts. Those five would give him +1 per level.

Now I'm looking a boons, I'm half considering 'Material Casting' If I can tie it back to blood, possibly drinking vampire blood, I would be curious if he could 'craft' it somehow. Also looking at an oracle curse that may lean into being part vampire, or even 'Vampiric Casting.'

Still working on Beginning Spheres, shouldn't take long.

I also need to decide if I'm going to go with the alt. race trait Fangs, or Bloodbender

Edit: In my minds eye the basic soul weaver class comes from Pharasma (almost like a cleric) but the sphere's are a result of his blood line. Or something like that

We are still figuring out TLL's character. We will figure it out soon. :3

Also what’s our starting gold?

The last 'recruitment' the starting gold was 150 gp.

Yeah, its 150gp. I just confirmed.

@Robert Henry: Using the Material Casting drawback for what you mentioned could work, but finding vampire blood that isn't coming from you might be tricky. I'd suggest instead taking the Draining Casting drawback. Casting your more powerful spells would mean you have to bite yourself to draw upon your natural vampiric power. :-)

Hi, yes, I am going to be a tengu rage profit. Being a big buff bird lady just comes naturally to me. I'm still working on it though, so I'll let y'all know what's up when it's finished! <3

A tengu? *sigh* I love tengus

I'd suggest instead taking the Draining Casting drawback. Casting your more powerful spells would mean you have to bite yourself to draw upon your natural vampiric power. :-)

I would be curious to see how that would actually work.

So far this is my casting tradition:
Casting tradition: Master of Life, Death and Undeath
Casting tradition: drawbacks: Center Of Power, Verbal Casting, Somatic @ 2, witchedmarked,
Dual Channeler: Master of Life and Death: Life Sphere
Dual Channeler: Master of Life and Death: Death Sphere
Casting tradition: Enhancement sphere
Casting tradition: Enhancement Sphere Drawback: Bodily Enhancement
Casting tradition: Enhancement Sphere Talent: Natural Enhancement
Casting tradition: Enhancement Sphere Drawback: Personal magics
Casting tradition: Enhancement Sphere Talent: Deep Enhancement
Casting tradition: Sphere: Destruction Sphere

I'm looking to see if there are any more drawbacks. With Usawoti I put heavy drawbacks on the life and death sphere. I may leave them more vanilla so I can heal others with them and possibly control the undead; thus the title of the tradition.

Also Bloodbender: Vampiric heritage gives many dhampir an innate affinity for blood magic. They gain Basic Magic Training in the Blood sphere as a bonus feat at 1st level. This replaces manipulative and the spell-like ability racial traits. will give him a fifth sphere that I may tweak a little. Still half tempted to take the fangs instead of Bloodbender, but if he's close enough to bite he's close enough to get hit.

hmmm Draining Casting would give me 1 point, but I would need two for a boon.

Forums are new and weird to me so don't mind me just testing this... :D

Also kinda meet Senna!

@Robert Henry: Draining Casting makes you take nonlethal damage whenever you spend spell points. It can only be healed by rest, as you're literally siphoning your own vital essence to power your spells. :-)

Right, I was just pointing out that if I was going to add a boon, the drawback would only cover half the cost, so I would need to add another drawback.

I've gotten bogged down in trying to balance how I see him behaving as a Dhampir servant of Pharasma and juggling sphere's I know will be handy, like destruction and enhancement.

I'll try and get him finished today. I do need an opinion, would a Pharasmin create mindless undead?

It is good to meet Senna. Every PC has an S name now. Neat. :)

Did some editing, and it was inspired by all this talk about Sariel’s tradition. It made me think about customizing Sorsul’s. Therefore, I had the idea of her magic being like shadow puppetry. Took skilled casting, so a perform check is needed for any spells to be cast. DC16 is hard at level 1 (and the DC increases by 1 each level). Not wanting to lose all of her spells, I boosted her perform as far as possible…never before has maximizing perform been a necessity. The sheer amount of investment to get to +14 really shows how the drawback is there. :p

Also for combat tradition, sat down and looked for what weapons made the most sense. Settled on Custom Training (Bladed Scarf, Totem Spear, Scimitar). The three weapons felt like the most ‘dancer’ ones to have. The kind of things you’d expect her to have for performing, and thus what her shadow would use as well.

Still tinkering here and there, but overall should be done.

Hey YBD, I'm trying to wrap my brain around blood magic, Sariel can take the sphere for free, but I know he's only going to have 'so many' talents. I'm trying to be a little more focused than I was with Usawoti, but I don't do very good planning more than a few levels.

Was the queen using blood magic? I know kind of a dumb question right? Any pointers on 'blood magic'? Or is there a better sphere to represent basic vampire stuff?

Ok another rookie question:

Lingering Transformation says: Your shapeshift effects linger for 2 additional rounds after you stop concentrating. Additionally, when you spend a spell point to continue your shapeshift without concentration, the duration increases to 10 minutes per caster level. If your duration is already or becomes 10 minutes per caster level in certain situations due to another source, it instead increases to 1 hour per caster level when in those certain situations. I'm very curious what the 'another source' that may cause the duration to already be 10 minutes per caster level.

I've started thinking about what skills vampires have, turning into wolves or bats is one of them. So, it feels like 'Alteration' should be a thing.

@Robert Henry: Pharasma abhors undead of any type. Creating undead is an immediate violation of her code and the single most effective way to lose her favor. In other words, to a Pharasmin, creating undead is the equivalent of a Paladin burning down an orphanage while stealing candy from a baby. ;-)

The 'another source' comment regarding Lingering Transformation is because certain classes (like the Shifter) have features that duplicate that sphere talent. Depending on how versatile you want your shapeshifting to be, the Transformation feat could be what you're looking for. It lets you turn into one specific thing at-will - like how a Kitsune can shift between human and fox form.

The queen was using blood magic, yes. Most of it was from the Crimson Dancer class, but she did use the Bloodbind, Piercing Blood, and Rush to the Head talents in addition to a few things from the Duelist sphere.

@Robert Henry: Pharasma abhors undead of any type. Creating undead is an immediate violation of her code and the single most effective way to lose her favor. In other words, to a Pharasmin, creating undead is the equivalent of a Paladin burning down an orphanage while stealing candy from a baby. ;-)

That is what I assumed, but I wanted to double check because of the 'unintelligent' part, I figured the soul was hers, but wasn't sure what she'd think about putting the parts she wasn't taking to work :)

I've almost got Sariel finished, I will explain how I view the 'moving parts' once I get him posted.

Ok, I think Sariel is done. with two frontliners I leaned into the casting ability modifier and maxed out spheres. Looking at the other characters, I tried not to overlap knowledge or Sphere's too much. I probably will eventually pick up the destruction sphere, but not yet. Also, with the damage output everyone else is doing, I focused my sixth sphere on defense.

Now, how I intend to play him, I see the 'soul weaver'/Dual Channeler and their class features as a gift from Pharasma, almost like a cleric. I see the 'sphere's portion' as a reflection of his Dhampir nature. So when he 'casts' he uses both Somatic and verbal cues, as well as displaying a Center of Power and Witch markings. I think the Center of Power will be his eyes turning 'blood red' and I think the witch markings will be his body looking more and more like a vampire, ie pale loose skin, his hair turning matted gray, and possibly the stench of death. I picked up the two extra traits from his background (Sorry YBD, I just didn't love any of the rest) so any recommendations on what language he should learn, and should it be the language he casts in? Or does that matter?

Just for fun I tried to make the two spheres from his casting tradition to match up with 'traditional' vampire abilities. The first, 'Alteration' he took two drawbacks lycanthropic and unnatural transformation. So only he can transform and when doing so, he doesn't look right. Early on he will use undead body's Undead Skin for the protection or incorporeal to escape and later he will be able to transform into a wolf shape or a 'swarm' of bats. I may work on a 'combat' form which will have the undead skin, claws and a bite, but I'm not sure.

The second Sphere I took to represent vampirism is the mind Sphere. Using the blatant side effects and Hypnotic gaze drawbacks. So anyone he is trying to control will have to look him in the eyes and will then behave like they've been 'mind controlled' very much a Renfield. I don't know that I'll ever use the sphere but it made me laugh.

I didn't want to alter his previous backstory and description, but I did tweak his gear a little. If he can't cast spheres and wear the Haramaki let me know.

Since everyone's getting finished up, I thought I'd start character audits. :-)

Glad you liked the themes +1 removed, was from a trait. Dropped extra traits for skill focus perform and forgot to remove it. Also I’ll get background updated and added to profile.

Stat allocation is a multi-step process, but it’s quite quick. Start with your racial attributes, and then add +2 to anything that hasn’t already been boosted. This can be used to negate a penalty if so desired.
STR 10 DEX 12 CON 10 INT 10 WIS 8 CHA 14

Next select a background, gain one of the two listed stat boosts, and then add +2 to any stat that wasn’t boosted this step.

STR 10 DEX 14 CON 10 INT 10 WIS 8 CHA 14

Third, gain +2 to a stat that’s tied to your class. This will generally be your spellcasting or practitioner modifier, but it’s fairly flexible.

STR 10 DEX 14 CON 10 INT 10 WIS 8 CHA 16

Last, gain +2 to four different stats of your choice. The only restriction is that you can’t “double-up” on a stat. Example: I’m putting them in STR, DEX, CON, and WIS.

STR 10 DEX 16 CON 12 INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 18

Optional: Take -2 to two stats to gain +2 to one other.

STR 8 DEX 16 CON 10 INT 10 WIS 10 CHA 20

Actually will probably go with Legalistic: Whenever you break your word (either purposefully or unintentionally), you become sickened for 24 hours or until you meet your obligation, whichever comes first.

Do we get to take both stats on the background?

Thanks! Glad I messed up by undercharging myself.

I noticed under prestige classes shadow dancer leads to pain seeker. Just an FYI

@ Sorsul, Pain seeker? What are you going to do, join a really slow game?

@Sorsul: Thanks for catching that. Sometimes when I adjust page layout, links end up leading to the wrong place. It should be fixed now. On a related note, if you haven't already, take a look at the Umbral Agent. ;-)

Oh no…they are both really good. Maybe pain seeker is being spoiled for options.

It makes planning my build a lot harder. Definitely doing 12 levels of Armorist Darkshaper, though (+3 enchantment bonus for special enchantments thanks to Arsenal trick). But from lvl13+ Both are great prestige classes. And shadow jump is a great capstone.

So is everyone ready to go?

For build planning purposes, I can tell you that as-written, Carrion Crown is about as long as Skull & Shackles. I may or may not pad it out a little, but for the time-being, plan to reach Level 15 shortly before reaching the final battle.

I've made an introduction post in Gameplay and added a town map to the Campaign Header. There's no obligation for you to know each other or arrive together. The funeral is scheduled for the morning after you arrive in town.

I've touched up Sariel's backstory, I had forgot the previous iteration had a black sword. Sadly I don't see a way of working it in without multi classing or extensive feat usage so I removed that portion of his backstory and made him just a normal little half-vampire boy abandoned on the temple steps by a mid-wife.

I've also added a couple of quirks to help me remember his 'style.'

Feel free to read.