Aldizog's Carrion Crown (PF1)

Game Master Aldizog

Welcome! Feel free to make adjustments to characters now that you see who else is in the game and what you think the party might need.
I know that this recruitment was a bit quirky with its grognard style, but I hope it will be an enjoyable game. I appreciate you giving it a chance and submitting characters.

*Waves*

40k game right now. Will catch up tonight

Theodore Samuel Walden Carter appraisal of his younger sister as the elder gentleman stalks up to her seems to be judgmental....

Hello All!

Thank you for giving Theo's elder brother a chance at infamy!

Theodore isn't Insane, nor does he have The White Rabbit, but he does see, speak, properly handle dead people, places and things.

Theodore is a bit stern, but that is mostly a side affect of his profession.

Call Theodore Samuel Walden Carter!

Hello, out and about so just a quick dot in and greeting before I buzz off again. Will also check in with the S&S campaign once I'm home.

Looking forward to it! ^_^

On bus in snowstorm right now. Dotting in

Feel free to post in Gameplay whenever you like, but I imagine it will be a couple of days before we really get started. Let everyone finalize their characters and so on (retraining will of course be possible down the road).

I did want to ask a question about the Variant Multiclassing. I've not used that system before...

Would it be possible to pick up a singular Investigator (specifically the Empiricist) class feature? It's all I would want from the secondary class.

If not, I'll shore up what I can with the feat Additional Traits instead.

I wasn't allowing Additional Traits - basically, I feel like the Traits system is so badly designed that it fails at its intended goal of "fleshing out your character's background." So just the 1 campaign trait to provide a storyline connection to the Professor.

Investigator is not one of the options for Variant Multiclassing. I do understand that Int-to-everything is appealing, but again, this AP was written before Investigator, before Unchained Rogue... it shouldn't be that necessary to optimize skills that much. I don't think you will be at all behind what the AP expects you to be able to handle.

There are also the facts that 1) the rest of the party will be able to cover some gaps (the bard, cleric, and cavalier are decent or good at face skills), and 2) this is a caster-heavy party, so at mid-to-high levels there could quite likely be a lot of bonuses to checks.

Well, worth a try. ^_^

I knew we were only taking the one trait to begin, but hadn't realized you were disallowing the feat. My mistake.

I may change my mind on that later if it appears the party is under-powered relative to the difficulty of the AP.

I will never take away options, only add them.

Well played, Bluedove! I am still deciding on his personality. He probably won't be as eccentric as a certain Holistic Detective we know...lol.

As far as reworking my character to fit the party. I'm pretty dead set on being a transmuter with battleshaping. The general plan is to buff people and step into melee if needed. I'm open to suggestions for spell selection or skill assignment. I have 19 gold to spend but I'm not terribly certain what to spend it on.

Theodore couldn't properly chide her for being late, because, well, Wizard ..

And, besides, Transmuter fits the Theme nicely.

I almost waited until after I saw Marill post lol.

Well played, Bluedove! I am still deciding on his personality. He probably won't be as eccentric as a certain Holistic Detective we know...lol.

It will be hard to top Dirk for quirks... ^_~

I'll be feeling Ismene out personality-wise too. Pretty good bet she'll be studious and reserved, at least until she lets loose her inner know-it-all and starts blowing s#!+ up. XD

That was a fantastic story, GM Aldizog! Nicely done!

I have my Abomination Vaults game tonight but if I can return serve today I shall...lol.

Oh hey!

Professor Lorrimor's spellbook:

Abjuring Step, Alarm, Air Bubble, Comprehend Languages, Crafter’s Fortune, Cultural Adaptation, Detect Undead, Endure Elements, Erase, Fastidiousness, Feather Fall, Floating Disk, Hold Portal, Identify, Mage Armor, Magic Missile, Mindlink, Pierce Facade, Protection from Evil, Sleep, True Skill, True Strike, Vanish

Aram Zey's Focus, Arcane Lock, Book Ward, Carrion Compass, Command Undead, Invisibility, Levitate, Obscure Object, Resist Energy, Spider Climb, Suppress Charms and Compulsions

Arcane Sight, Clairvoyance/Clairaudience, Dispel Magic, Force Anchor, Gaseous Form, Glimpse the Hidden, Halt Undead, Lightning Bolt, Magic Circle Against Evil, Nondetection, Pierce Disguise, Secret Page, Suggestion, Tiny Hut, Tongues, Wind Wall

Arcane Eye, Detect Scrying, Eyes of the Void, Hypercognition, Remove Curse, Purge Spirit, Resilient Sphere, Scrying, True Form

While this is quite a haul for 1st-level PCs, he logically would have a spellbook (unless I determined that he normally stored it with Secluded Grimoire and it is now unrecoverable). I tried to put in spells that an investigator/explorer wizard would reasonably have, with a smattering of offense but mostly divination, abjuration, and utility. And, much of the value of this spellbook won't be of actual use to you until much later.

Sorry to report but my laptop has crashed. Trying to troubleshoot but my coverage has expired so if I can't fix the problem, it may take some time before I'm up and running again. I will keep you posted.

Okay, we'll bot you if need be. Thanks for the update.

Level up summary
+7 HP
+1 BAB
+1 Will
+1 Spellcraft
+1 Linguistics (She now speaks Abyssal)
+1 Arcana
+1 Planes
+1 Religion
+1 Geography
+1 History
+1 0th slot
+1 1st slot
Feather Fall
Monkey Fish

Think I got everything...

Levelling up is fun :-).

I'm now ACTUALLY a Dirge bard :-)

Nearly done with level-up, taking Precise Bombs discovery and Draconic language for next rank in Linguistics. Should get the profile updated tomorrow.

Theodore Samuel Waldan Carter

Race
Human

Classes/Levels
Cleric (Roaming Exorcist) 2

+1 BaB (lol)
+1 Fort/Will
+7 hp
+6 Skill Ranks
+2 BG

Spells
+1 Orison
+1 1st

Roaming Exorcist Ability
Spirit Sleuth (Ex): At 2nd level, upon interacting with a rejuvenating spirit or haunt for the first time (such as by attacking the spirit or channeling energy to damage the haunt), a roaming exorcist can attempt a Sense Motive check as a free action to determine the specific course of action required to permanently neutralize the spirit or haunt (DC = 10 + the undead creature’s Hit Dice or the haunt’s CR).

Theodore Samuel Waldan Carter

Race
Human

Classes/Levels
Cleric (Roaming Exorcist) 3

+1 BaB (lol)
+1 Ref
+7 hp
+6 Skill Ranks
+2 BG

Channel 2d6

Feat
3rd Selective Channel

2nd level
1. Spiritual Weapon
2. Aid

Domain Spell Cure Moderate Wounds

Quinn:
Ghost Rider Cavalier 3

+1 BAB
+1 Ref
+1 Will
+8 HP
+5 skill points (FCB)
Class Feature: Fearless (paladin fear immunity and aura)
Feat: Ride-By Attack

Luna:
+1 BAB
+1 Will
+8 HP
+2 skill points
+2 AC
Feat: Sure-Footed

@Quinn - the Ghost Mount only gets 1 skill rank per level because of the Int penalty, correct?

Level up summary
+7 HP
+1 Fort
+1 Reflex
+1 Spellcraft
+1 Linguistics (Gnomish)
+1 Arcana
+1 Planes
+1 Religion
+1 Geography
+1 History
+3 2nd level slots
Darkvision
See Invisibility
Arcane Strike

Can I attune to my battleshaping natural weapons? Also might be important to know how it works for natural weapons when I polymorph.

@Quinn - the Ghost Mount only gets 1 skill rank per level because of the Int penalty, correct?

I was going by this in the Phantom entry, which specifically mentions getting more skill points if Int is high enough but doesn't say anything about getting fewer with a penalty.

Skills: This lists the phantom’s total skill ranks. A phantom can assign skill ranks to any skills, but it must possess the appropriate appendage to use some skills. Phantoms with Intelligence scores above the base value modify these totals as normal (a phantom gains a number of skill ranks equal to 2 + its Intelligence modifier per Hit Die). A phantom can’t have more ranks in a skill than it has Hit Dice. Phantom skill ranks are set once chosen.

Can I attune to my battleshaping natural weapons? Also might be important to know how it works for natural weapons when I polymorph.

I'll start with Mark Seifter's rule and adjust for polymorphing. Attuning to 1 weapon means 1 natural weapon at a time but this can change with your form. Attuning to 2 weapons means all natural weapons unless you have "terribly many" as Mark says. Let's say up to 4?

GM Aldizog wrote:

@Quinn - the Ghost Mount only gets 1 skill rank per level because of the Int penalty, correct?

I was going by this in the Phantom entry, which specifically mentions getting more skill points if Int is high enough but doesn't say anything about getting fewer with a penalty.

Skills: This lists the phantom’s total skill ranks. A phantom can assign skill ranks to any skills, but it must possess the appropriate appendage to use some skills. Phantoms with Intelligence scores above the base value modify these totals as normal (a phantom gains a number of skill ranks equal to 2 + its Intelligence modifier per Hit Die). A phantom can’t have more ranks in a skill than it has Hit Dice. Phantom skill ranks are set once chosen.

Int modifiers apply to skill points per level whether positive or negative, so "2+Int modifier" means the default Phantom should be at 1 per HD with its 7 Int. The best explanation I have seen is that Outsider phantoms actually have 6+Int skill ranks per level, and then -2 for a 7 Int and a further -2 for the 2 preassigned focus skills. That's why there was no provision for Int being lower than the base value, because for a normal phantom it can only go up (by assigning points every 4 HD).

Now, Ghost Mount differs from the standard Phantom in a number of ways, such as Animal type and lower Int. A standard animal companion has 1 skill point per HD, a Phantom has 2 skill points per HD, the Ghost Mount is not quite either. The two changes of type and Int make me inclined to give it 1 skill point per HD.

Besides the skill ranks, there are a ton of other puzzling gaps in the rules as relate to the Ghost Mount:

I usually do gore attacks anyway for the better die so I'll attune to that. Thank!

Quinn Harwood wrote:

GM Aldizog wrote:

@Quinn - the Ghost Mount only gets 1 skill rank per level because of the Int penalty, correct?

I was going by this in the Phantom entry, which specifically mentions getting more skill points if Int is high enough but doesn't say anything about getting fewer with a penalty.

Skills: This lists the phantom’s total skill ranks. A phantom can assign skill ranks to any skills, but it must possess the appropriate appendage to use some skills. Phantoms with Intelligence scores above the base value modify these totals as normal (a phantom gains a number of skill ranks equal to 2 + its Intelligence modifier per Hit Die). A phantom can’t have more ranks in a skill than it has Hit Dice. Phantom skill ranks are set once chosen.

Int modifiers apply to skill points per level whether positive or negative, so "2+Int modifier" means the default Phantom should be at 1 per HD with its 7 Int. The best explanation I have seen is that Outsider phantoms actually have 6+Int skill ranks per level, and then -2 for a 7 Int and a further -2 for the 2 preassigned focus skills. That's why there was no provision for Int being lower than the base value, because for a normal phantom it can only go up (by assigning points every 4 HD).

Now, Ghost Mount differs from the standard Phantom in a number of ways, such as Animal type and lower Int. A standard animal...

This lists the phantom’s total skill ranks. [...] Phantoms with Intelligence scores above the base value modify these totals as normal (a phantom gains a number of skill ranks equal to 2 + its Intelligence modifier per Hit Die). A phantom can’t have more ranks in a skill than it has Hit Dice. Phantom skill ranks are set once chosen.

In the end, you're the GM.

Regarding the other cases, I agree that there are gaps, there's also an open question of class skills and available feats from the more typically built animal companions. I built assuming the phantom stat block as written, with the specific changes made from the archetype, and otherwise will have to get back to you on more specifics when I have more time later in the week to deep dive, but I will ask - if the phantom statblock is rebuilt as an animal type, why even make it a phantom to begin with?

... but I will ask - if the phantom statblock is rebuilt as an animal type, why even make it a phantom to begin with?

Good question. And if it is a phantom, why change its type to Animal instead of keeping it as Outsider?

I have no idea why they decided to do it that way.

The archetype gives up a lot, and cavalier isn't OP to begin with, so I'm comfortable erring on the side of leniency here. Even so, saying "this one type of creature only applies positive modifiers to skill points, never negative ones" would be so strange and incongruous with the rest of the rules that I can't imagine that is what was intended. Such an exception would be more clearly spelled out, I think.

So I will say it is Type Outsider (Phantom).

1) Skill points are base 6/HD, with the -4 Int modifier that makes it 2/HD.
2) Does not need tricks
3) BAB are equal to HD
4) Does not get the scaling slam damage, but does get the animal companion boosts to Str/Dex instead of Dex/Cha
5) Does not grant the Shared Consciousness feature

If you want either an Animal Companion feat or a Phantom feat, run it by me. Will probably be fine.

Quinn Harwood wrote:

... but I will ask - if the phantom statblock is rebuilt as an animal type, why even make it a phantom to begin with?

Good question. And if it is a phantom, why change its type to Animal instead of keeping it as Outsider?

I have no idea why they decided to do it that way.

The archetype gives up a lot, and cavalier isn't OP to begin with, so I'm comfortable erring on the side of leniency here. Even so, saying "this one type of creature only applies positive modifiers to skill points, never negative ones" would be so strange and incongruous with the rest of the rules that I can't imagine that is what was intended. Such an exception would be more clearly spelled out, I think.

So I will say it is Type Outsider (Phantom).

1) Skill points are base 6/HD, with the -4 Int modifier that makes it 2/HD.
2) Does not need tricks
3) BAB are equal to HD
4) Does not get the scaling slam damage, but does get the animal companion boosts to Str/Dex instead of Dex/Cha
5) Does not grant the Shared Consciousness feature

If you want either an Animal Companion feat or a Phantom feat, run it by me. Will probably be fine.

I'm fine with all that, that keeps things pretty simple. Outsider/phantom class skills too?

For feats, I had picked Nimble Frame and Surefooted, if youre good with those, to ease the large size moving around close quarters like dungeons. I can pick others if those are problematic.

Those feats are great.

Class skills are those listed under Ghost Mount.