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I know *I* want to know more about ayindilar elves as a culture and what makes them different from their surface-dwelling cousins, since it's now VERY clear the azrinaran elves of Starfinder can't just be backfilled into Pathfinder (because their origin story is now that they branched off from regular elves during The Gap, and their unique features are adaptations to Apostae's artificial environment, while their skin color is now a cultural fashion, specifically that the majority of them use the moodskin body augmentation so their skin color changes with their mood, and it's considered a sign of skill and status to be so in control of your emotions that you maintain a blue skin tone, signifying calm, no easy task in the cutthroat world of azrinaran corpo-dynastic politics).
But on the other hand, Moon IS one of Desna's domains RAW. That DOES appear to be an addition from 2e, however.
The most clear moon goddess probably would have been the one that died in Earthfall (Amaznen?) Close, Acavna. Amaznen was her husband.
Reporting in, gonna have to reconsider my original plan for an Undead Sorcerer/Paladin Eldritch Knight (ultimately, obviously they wouldn't start there) because part of it hinged on Wee Jas' acceptance of necromancy and undead (as long as they were created with the deceased's consent) as opposed to Pharasma's zero-tolerance policy. Time to start brainstorming!
Maybe we'll finally get that metal druid they said was gonna be in Rage of Elements but instead it got quietly dropped in favor of just removing vanilla Druid's anathema against metal armor in the Remaster...
The AP presumes that the heroes of Age of Ashes gifted Citadel Altaerein to the citizens of Breachill. But nothing really depends on this. As usual, if it matters to your group, you just need to adapt to explain what happened to the Age of Ashes heroes and, if they are still around, why this band of demigods does not show up to kick the Hellknights back to Cheliax and mop up other threats over the weekend. I would just assume they are on epic business in other planes.Could be they are helping off-screen by fighting Hell directly out there. After all, the Adamantine Morass IS located in Hell...
I just want people to be aware that I still plan on running this but I got unexpectedly slammed at work and I don't have time to get this started right now. I will hopefully be a bit more open in a week or two and can start something then. Apologies for the delay 'Tis cool! We'll be standing by when you're ready!
...well, it's a good thing my intended submission was a prettyboy human paladin of Wee Jas intending to multiclass into Sorcerer! XD
What I'm personally wondering is what part of the Darklands we're starting in! We know the PCs are narratively assumed to be Darklands natives, but the culture and temperament of those natives could be very different depending on whether they're under Varisia or the Mwangi Expanse or the Realm of the Mammoth Lords or the Isle of Kortos!
The only replacement has been that any cities that were previously stated to be "drow" cities are now sekmin cities, with the exception of Zirnakaynin, where even the sekmin don't know WTF is going on and frankly they don't WANT to know. But this is because the drow were fabricated by Koriah Azmeren as a way to cover up the extent of sekmin territory in the Darklands, rather than the drow having existed and now not existing. The azrinarans of Starfinder don't exist yet in Pathfinder, as they split off from normal elves during The Gap, which takes place long after any events Pathfinder might cover, so the only way an azrinaran would appear in Golarion is through time-travel shenanigans.
Kingmaker 2e made the same with its kingdom, including granting feats for customization. By that do you mean a 2e remaster of Horizons of the Vast, or something completely new? For some reason I never got the vibe that HotV reached the same popularity that's made Kingmaker so evergreen for Pathfinder, but I'm not sure if that's because Starfinder has always kind of lagged behind in popularity or because other APs resonated with the fans more strongly, like Fly Free or Die, Against the Aeon Throne or Dead Suns.
As for intelligent undead, I agree with you that I don't like seeing them as "always evil" as demons and the like, since them as tragic figure is very compelling and making it so the turn "switch them to evil" have always been lame to me, but it seems that the lore is heading away from that anyway, with some of them (that aren't ghost, as ghost were always the exception to that "always evil" thing) being shown as neutral fairly recently (and I believe Arazni assencion to the core 20 is also meant to accomodate nonevil undead PC). So I don't really see the point in criticising this further since they quite visibly decided to move in this direction already, the only reason they still seems to be "locked" to always evil is because most pathfinder material date from before that switch. Right, but the text of the Book of the Dead carries an implication that this state of affairs is inherently unsustainable due to the void energy animating them being forced to do something it inherently can't (vitality is the creative energy and void destructive, you can't use one to do the other, any more than you can drink fire or breathe dirt, no matter how much sophistry and outright denial Geb deploys) and even a "non-evil" undead will eventually succumb to evil as their undead hunger corrodes their minds, bodies AND souls (because undeath yanks a person's soul from the River back into the body, damaging it in the process), to the point where the hunger is all that's left of their personality and people stop being people to them, but sustenance.
Flooring a question to the GM and the rest of the party: I'm debating whether to be a Solarian or a Shadow Connection Mystic. Which do you feel would be better for the party? Their core concept beyond class is that they were an Unbound Lashunta who joined the Golden League and learned martial arts and some mystical techniques as a Xun while they were partnered with Sinjin.
Speaking of Solarian, I'm leaning towards that class given we have magic, muscle and mischief covered to varying degrees, and I think I'm gonna lock into the "Golden Parachute" concept. Just have to decide on their ancestry and whether their relationship with Sinjin was just partners-in-crime or partners-in-crime, if you know what I'm sayin'. ;)
Reporting in! Like I said in the recruitment thread, I got a few character concepts for most of the available "backgrounds" from the AP, so I'm gonna give the others a chance to clarify the classes they're playing so I'm not being...y'know, redundant? Leaning right now to the "Golden Parachute" or "Kalistocrat Childhood" or "Mine Collapse" concepts, however (to clarify, these wouldn't be one person who could be slotted into any of those three, they're three different concepts I'd pick one from).
I am VERY interested in finally getting a chance to play 2e Starfinder on the forums! Jahn Soter Ancestry: Human (Versatile Human)
Jahn is a sour-faced middle-aged human who's spent the last decade or so moving around Akiton to get out of his famous cousin's shadow and return to anonymity. Growing up in a small Akitonian town similar to Azurite Hollow, Jahn did odd jobs throughout most of his childhood into his teenage years, until a plague swept through. He found himself effectively apprenticed to the local medical clinic as a runner for supplies and "volunteer" nurse, watching his parents get brought in and pass, followed by his aunt and then his twelve-year-old cousin, who was the only one that actually recovered. Thus, Jahn added "parent" to the list of jobs he was forced to take while completely unqualified for as his own mental health spiraled. The arrival of an outlaw gang that effectively took over the town didn't help matters, and Jahn was forced to tend their injuries from the raids they went on as well as those of the townsfolk they brutalized. Arcalinte was the only reason he hung on, feeling obligated to not leave him to face this nightmare alone, and his tenacity was rewarded when a wandering solarian singlehandedly dispatched the raiders and saved what was left of the town. Arcalinte was awed by the man and begged to join him as a student. Jahn, for his part, was grateful at least one of them could have a chance at a future. The solarian, Sola Gorsedd, brought Arcalinte to Absalom Station, while Jahn stayed behind and watched his community drift apart and become a ghost town, prompting him to pack up and leave as well. Since then, he's drifted from place to place, filling whatever jobs will take him, helping people as down on their luck as he is, and trying to scrape together enough credits to afford antidepressants. Seeing his cousin's name on the news trivids as some hotshot Starfinder hero who blew up a sun-killer and saved the Pact Worlds was as much a shock to him as anyone else, and he did not find the new attention welcome. He didn't want his cousin's charity, nor did he want the enemies his cousin's heroics had made to come after him as some kind of leverage or bait. Nevertheless, Jahn's found he has a tendency to play the hero in spite of himself, refusing to abandon the wounded or sick and resentful of bullies, and while he tries to move on each time to prevent attachments from forming, he may find himself in a spotlight of his own at last, whether he likes it or not. (Can you tell I've had this guy percolating for a long time now?!)
The next Starfinder novel, Assault on Absalom Station, has been announced! It's apparently going to be a direct sequel to Era of the Eclipse, with it looking like Tyrcell will join Dae and Chk Chk as a third protagonist. Given the art, I expect the Corpse Fleet will be involved (unless we're doing more flashbacks to something historical like the Magefire Assault).
Yes indeedy! Especially with some of the other bits of lore the Draconic Codex has dropped, such as the theory that at least some dragons keep kobolds around less out of actual usefulness and more because they just find them cure! Or that magma dragons consider having a healthy, prosperous tribe of kobolds as a status symbol and if they think another magma dragon has a better tribe (or if they think the tribe is being mismanaged, magma dragons have OPINIONS about how the land they consider part of their territory and its resources are used) they'll attempt to steal or bully it out of them!
Ustalav is I think still ruled by mortal counts despite TB popping a cork near there recently. It's a lot more deeply rural outside of the capital in Caliphas, but the city is more than full enough with politicking and secret societies like the Esoteric Order. If the deadly court games demanded keeping a tight lid on the activities of the common people, it probably wouldn't be too difficult to slip in some secret police and spies. As a matter of fact, Ustalav DOES have a secret police already in the form of the Royal Accusers and Bureau of Special Affairs (though they may just be the same organization, Royal Accuser being the name of an agent for the Bureau). It wouldn't be much of a stretch for them to have become even more paranoid and fanatical with the Gravelands erupting on Ustalav's doorstep. Plus, in private services we have the Sleepless Agency. While there may or may not have been some attempts on Paizo's part to clean them up in the new edition, it's no secret that they were originally just fantasy Pinkertons, with their name derived directly from the real-world agency's motto: "We Never Sleep."
I've gotten the itch to try a new character concept: a gnome paladin/fey bloodline sorcerer/eldritch knight. A chivalrous little guy who seeks to get in touch with his First World heritage and build a kingdom where fey and mortals can live in harmony and wonder! Trouble is, I'm not sure what kind of gnome he should be, his backstory and beliefs. My gut instinct is having him be a Shelynite, since she's 1) a deity popular among gnomes, and 2) one that allows paladin worshipers per the Kingmaker game's available options and 3) it creates some opportunity for DRAMA with Valerie's personal quests. But that last part also may be problematic, if there isnt really a way to be "nuanced:" either you hold to your Shelynite beliefs and make Valerie hate you as a result, or you validate Valerie's grievances and attitude and become something of a hypocrite. Of the other deities popular with gnomes, Abadar and Erastil seem too rigid and "civilized" to coexist with chaotic fey, and will want to "tame" the Stolen Lands' wild places rather than appreciate their natural beauty. And other popular gnome deities like Desna and Gozreh don't count paladins among their faithful becauase this is still 1e. As for other paladin-friendly deities, Sarenrae offers connections to Tristian, but she's not that popular a deity in that corner of Golarion, and while Iomedae is, she's not very "fey-friendly" thanks to her lawfulness. And I'd need to decide what drew him to Jamandi's call for heroes in the first place. My last character had an easy reason: in addition to being an Iomedaean paladin, he was a prospective Aldori Swordlord and wanted to support Jamandi's cause. Gnomes can come from anywhere, however, creating some analysis paralysis on just where this gnome gnight came from and what inspired him to be a hero. So...I know I'm overthinking this, but I enjoy crafting characters who fit into the world their game is set in, so I like to actually write backstories WotR SPOILERS!:
(even if they're eventually disproven by the narrative like the Commander in Wrath of the Righteous being revealed to have had false memories implanted by Areelu Vorlesh ). Any suggestions on how to make a good backstory for this guy would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
And one more thing to add to discussion is that it's important to remember the difference between what we, the audience, know and what the characters in the game's world would know. The game's text communicates to us in no uncertain terms that Razmir is a fraud and his priests ape divine power through occult substitutes and trickery. It HAS to, so GMs and players know what kinds of stories Razmir and his church are meant to be used in. If the text were more ambiguous, GMs might draw different conclusions (like "gods are powered by belief Forgotten-Realms-style, so Razmir is trying to get enough people to believe he's a god that the lie becomes reality" or "Razmir himself isn't a real person, his followers just made him up and it's the organization itself that's the villain"). But the average Golarion adventurer isn't going to find out what's going on with Razmir and his church unless they want to investigate, unless they stumble across that thread and decide to pull it. And for the average NPC, if they're not right on Razmiran's doorstep, have even LESS reason to know or even care whether Razmir's claim to Starstone-godhood is true.
What I mean by "outsider" is someone who ISN'T a noble, but is looking to get into the "game" and may find themselves ennobled for their heroism as time goes on. Here's the beginnings of themes I've got: Young Reformer (inspired by the Campaign Trait of the same name, the Quest would be to build a network of contacts) Gutsy Halfling (Tags might be "Easily Dismissed," "Folksy Patter" and something about keeping a level head or not getting easily scared) I could possibly recycle the "Beguiler" theme from Honeylynn in the previous game, to imply they've got some knack for deceptive magic without being pigeonholed into Pathfinder's specific classes.
Thinking of a shaman who's an accountant. Wow, that brings back memories of a table I played at in college. Our DRUID was the one who handled the party loot and negotiated payment with nobles and such. It was hilarious! Sadly, he was also the sole casualty of the campaign. Sphere of Annihilation. Anyway!
Wow...three 18s in a row! XD
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