Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber. Organized Play Member. 5,561 posts (24,855 including aliases). No reviews. No lists. No wishlists. 3 Organized Play characters. 41 aliases.
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I gotta admit, it's trickier to come up with a concept than I expected as I'm not used to this paradigm (yet). I'm used to using things like class, skill sets and prestige class as archetypes to model my character's backstory and personality around, even other PBTA games tend to do this with their playbooks giving you specific skillsets and tools unique to the one you pick and encouraging players to not "double up" on the same playbook for a more balanced group. But this seems more interested in taking a unique group of people and having them use whatever their specific skills or interests are to deal with situations in creative ways. Not a criticism, I think it's cool that this encourages thinking about character creation more from a "writing" perspective instead of the character starting with a chassis of numbers and rules and a personality then hung over it!
I've decided to save the Jasidin "eldritch knight" for Age of Worms but that does take me back to square one. Gonna have to reread the Player's Guide a bit more closely to see if anything "jumps out" at me...
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I'm debating whether to use a character concept I've had rattling around my brain for a while of a Jasidin "eldritch knight" sort of character from the Noble District, since Wee Jas has a very prominent place in Sasserine's history and culture, but on the other hand part of me wondered if I should save that concept for if someone does the Age of Worms AP, because there's more of a focus on necromancy in that one...
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Anirtak wrote:
Greyhawk.
I just reread the player's guide and it does such a great job with Sasserine that I don't want to mess with it. That said, I don't know Greyhawk well, so it's not going to be a low canon Greyhawk.
I should have a recruitment up in 24-48. I have some decisions to make on magic.
I appreciate the clarification! That gives me some idea of where to look for inspiration as I try to imagine the kind of character I wanna play.
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Oooh, haven't seen a recruitment for this AP in a while! I'll get started on throwing together a character! Maybe some sort of archeologist from Ustalav...
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Anirtak wrote:
Savage Tide is set in Greyhawk. Last time I ran it, I ported it to Golarion and just on-the-fly converted stuff. THIS Savage Tide is set in the Mist (Legend in the Mist) which means we can incorporate whatever we want.
I just ask because Greyhawk and Golarion have very different base assumptions in their worldbuilding that may influence character creation decisions (i.e. Pharasma and Wee Jas are both goddesses of death, but one considers undeath an abomination and disruption of the natural metaphysical order and the other is totally cool with undead and uses them as divine servitors).
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I'm intrigued: question for the campaign you ultimately decide on, though. Would it be set on Golarion with LitM rules, or would you be homebrewing your own setting for it as well?
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Very basic question I should probably have asked a year or two ago, but can a Champion choose a Cause that grants them Sanctification (Grandeur, Iniquity, Redemption, etc.) if their deity is one that normally doesn't grant that like Pharasma or Nethys? Or are they limited to the Causes that don't sanctify you, like Justice, Liberation or Obedience?
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I honestly think not enough attention is paid to the fact that ALL temples to Cayden Cailean are bars. Combined with his popularity among people of almost all classes, and I almost wonder if a fully secular bar might only exist in Rahadoum!
Same thing with Calistria and brothels, actually. And Abadar's banks. And forges for Torag, even beyond dwarven ones.
Religion plays a MUCH bigger role in the everyday goings-on of Golarion when so many places for work and leisure can be owned and operated by various churches, but I feel sometimes that gets barely touched on, even WHEN you're playing a cleric!
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If you read between the lines in the initial history, the implication seems to be that...
Spoiler:
...the Eternal Emperor can't reincarnate because he is in fact still alive and imprisoned. Near the start of Tian Xia's history, the World Guide describes how Aolin, the sovereign dragon founder of Yixing, along with his Imperial dragon kin, were charged by Shizuru and the Celestial Court with custodianship of Tian Xia and its people until the mortals were ready to govern themselves.
Aolin repeatedly sandbagged on this until directly confronted by Shizuru's herald. He intimidated her with his dragon form and declared he would only relinquish rulership when humans proved they could become as great as the divine. This eventually DID occur when Aroden ascended to godhood, but Aolin found a workaround and continued to rule through puppet emperors in secret. He murdered his own sister to keep this secret, but her student, Pu Duo, investigated and despite several setbacks where Aolin subverted Pu Duo's allies and resources, was able to imprison Aolin, since thanks to the joint sacrifice of another of Aolin's siblings and a phoenix, he had resurrective immorality and couldn't be killed. Then he was written out of history in an empire-wide conspiracy to ensure his tyranny couldn't be repeated.
I'd bet money that Aolin already has or is on the verge of escaping, and should the "reincarnation" of the Eternal Emperor actually be found, it will actually be Aolin in disguise, ready to return to power and resume his plans to rule all human nations from the shadows and prove to Shizuru and the other gods once and for all that humans are incapable of governing themselves without the benevolence of their dragon masters...
On the other hand, this could be just another board of red string from me, like that time I thought Norgorber was masterminding Galt's instability to create a playground of conspiracy and violence for his faithful. I turned out to be dead wrong about that. <_<
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VerBeeker wrote:
First mention of Iomedae in 2E, woo!
Thinking of how to integrate these ancestries in Pathfinder, some work as being just visitors but some being enclaves drawn from other lore could be interesting.
Woo indeed!
And I freaking DIG the expansion of the Knights of Golarion's ideals and mentality beyond just being "paladins IN SPAAAAAAACE!"
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I have the nuts and bolts for my Silvermist Scion (Aiuvarin Ranger, Free Archetyping into Cleric) set up. Will start writing up his background tomorrow!
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Powers128 wrote:
QuidEst wrote:
R3st8 wrote:
PossibleCabbage wrote:
Pharasma respects atheists. Per the PF1 Planar Adventures book, she will allow anybody who rejects the legitimacy of her judgement the opportunity to just wait out eternity in a quiet spot in the boneyard.
You could also just choose to be judged and become part of the foundation of some plane or another. She will respect your choice either way.
That is a strange definition of respect. If she genuinely respects these souls, then she should allow them to return home.
Huh? "Brought back to life by Pharasma" is so top-of-the-list of things Rahadoum isn't on board with that it has two books about it.
Re: Duskwalkers
Pharasma does resurrect people. Just very occasionally.
Yeah, and the resurrected Rahadoumi's reaction is, at least in the one textual example we have, genuine horror and disgust.
Death's Heretic SPOILERS!:
Salim Ghadafar "prayed" to Pharasma when his wife was dead by mentally asking if someone...anyone could help them. Pharasma was listening and resurrected his wife, and both husband and wife were shocked and ashamed at the compromise of their beliefs. They divorced, Salim fled Rahadoum and attempted suicide only to find he was now immortal. Ceyanan the Psychopomp Usher showed up and informed Salim he was now bound to Pharasma's service in exchange for the miracle she gave him, and he's been her cantankerous divine gumshoe ever since.
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I don't think we'll ever get it at this point but I would love, LOVE, to see a way to stand tower shields up so you can take cover behind them without holding them while you reload your crossbow in true Genoese fashion. I don't when care if it'd be unoptimal! I just wanna play something like this and look like the cool historical character for once!
(Only thing wr have now is the shielded tripod from Guns & Gears, which only works with things that have the Kickback trait, which crossbows naturally don't have!)
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vyshan wrote:
Why would Cheliax lead by Abrogail II want to stop serving Hell. Abrogail has the unique ability to create and enforce infernal contracts, something that among mortals only she has.
Remember that Cheliax (or at least its upper class) has deluded itself into thinking they're the more advantaged party in the contract. "Cheliax does not serve Hell, Hell serves Cheliax." In the quite likely event that House Thrune is forced into the position of either losing power over Cheliax or facing the consequences of breaking the Pact with Asmodeus, they'd most likely opt for the latter, hoping they can leave the lower classes holding the bag while they try to save their own skins (and souls) or...if Abrogail II is as psychopathic as she seems to be (remember, this is a woman who needs a NESSARI reminding her to rein in her worst impulses, who personally, GLEEFULLY beheaded every Iomedaean priest in Egorian with Iomedae's own sword and never bothered to clean the blood off of it out of spite!) She JUST MIGHT go mad enough to decide "Nah, I'd win."
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I think given what's been described in War of Immortals, I strongly suspect Szuriel will be involved, even if her presence on that book's cover kind of overstated her personal role in both conflicts.
Spoiler:
Apparently one of her agents, on the way to becoming an Apocalypse Rider in their own right, is causing trouble along the border disguised as a Hellknight of the Godclaw. Their aim is to lure Cheliax and Andoran into a war that will force House Thrune to default on their contract with Asmodeus, spurring him to send Hell's armies to invade Golarion directly in order to collect.
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James Jacobs wrote:
Archpaladin Zousha wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
It was pretty tricky navigating the implications of Second Darkness in Spore War, but I feel happy with how we did it... even if it doesn't push the lore revision forward at all on "what about the drow" side of things. But yes, some of Second Darkness' plot points will not only be acknowledged in Spore War, but will be significant callbacks.
Now I'm even MORE excited!
To manage expectations, though... none of those callbacks touch on the drow.
Oh, no worries, I didn't expect them to. I was more wondering just what events actually DID occur (that we see the results of anyway) that might could be interpreted as Second Darkness' results if you tilt your head at a certain angle and narrow your eyes a bit.
It's the least popular AP for many reasons, and I acknowledge the majority of those reasons are legit, but I'd feel more than a little sad if it was just completely became non-canon. You and the other folks at Paizo still worked hard on it and learned from it. I still have a soft spot for Riddleport and the Gold Goblin to this day, even if they only really feature in the first adventure. And more to the point, I found the political nuances between the Winter Council's initial conservative stance and the Lantern Bearers' choice to change and become better intriguing, so if there's a way to let that dynamic remain even if the drow aren't there for them to argue about, I'd be happy.
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James Jacobs wrote:
It was pretty tricky navigating the implications of Second Darkness in Spore War, but I feel happy with how we did it... even if it doesn't push the lore revision forward at all on "what about the drow" side of things. But yes, some of Second Darkness' plot points will not only be acknowledged in Spore War, but will be significant callbacks.
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I find it interesting that Pathfinder's essentially following its predecessor's path of not making giants themselves a playable ancestry (Starfinder 1e being a unique exception), but a giant-lite one with weird skin: goliaths have their lithoderms (bony lumps on the skin that when combined with their gray and black skin tones gave them a literally craggy appearance, something that was disappointingly neglected as the editions rolled on to make them more conventionally attractive <_<) and now jotunborn will have their "weavings" with silk literally embroidered into their skin.
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I'm now finding that I'm most curious about Kyonin in the upcoming book, largely because I want to see how Paizo will discuss the recent history of the nation and whether the Winter Council and Lantern Bearers will be discussed and what exactly their roles in Kyonin history will be redefined into, considering the raison d'être of both organizations has been retconned out of the setting.
Second Darkness SPOILERS!:
The Winter Council was a conspiracy in Kyonin's royal court dedicated to keeping the existence of the drow in the Darklands a secret from the rest of Golarion, because they believed if "The Dark Fate" (an evil elf committing a significant enough act of wickedness or betrayal could spontaneously transform into a drow) became public knowledge, the other ancestries would become suspicious of elves as a whole, inviting war and strife to Kyonin it didn't need with Treerazer squatting in their southern forests.
The Lantern Bearers were originally the Winter Council's military arm, before the events of Second Darkness revealed the rot in the Council's heart (the AP's villain was one of them and became a drow herself after her obsession with genociding the drow led her down the path of evil and Abraxas worship, which made her snap even harder and decide to reverse uno her plans onto the elves out of spite). Afterwards, the Lantern Bearers did some soul searching and when one of their leaders, a ranger with a unicorn animal companion, was slain and reincarnated as a drow, but her unicorn friend didn't abandon her, this was proof the drow as a people were not inherently evil and gave the Lantern Bearers a new sense of purpose. They became an organization dedicated to reintegrating rebel drow into elf society and protecting the free peoples of the Darklands from the depredations of their cruel rulers.
Obviously, a lot changed from Second Darkness to today, the first being the elimination of The Dark Fate as a concept, which had been rightly compared to the "Curse of Ham" rationalization of racism, and the general shift away from the drow having a monolithic culture of evil in Zirnakaynin, but now with the reveal that Zirnakaynin is in fact empty and Koriah Azmeren didn't defy the Winter Council's censorship to reveal the drow's existence to the world, but instead made them up to hide the extent of sekmin control over the Darklands, it's all up in the air.
I'm just really curious if Paizo will acknowledge Second Darkness' events in any capacity, or if it'll all be ignored and thus Paizo's general policy of having the events of each adventure path have taken place to impact the setting's history will be over.
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TheTownsend wrote:
The convergence of a tribal diaspora, relearning their ancient faith in conjured beasts.
Wanderers of other realms astride a colossal beast of impenetrable wisdom and resource.
Theater Kids.
"I dunno man, I think we're in a little in over our heads here."
"Nonsense, we are the lorebearers of the greatest empire to ever--"
"That is a mile-long elephant! From another dimension! That kid just summoned a rabbit-snake, and everybody worshiped it! We write poetry!"
"And we're among the best damn spies in the Inner Sea region. Which is one of the reasons we're here in the first place."
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CorvusMask wrote:
Thing about Ragathiel is that he actually wasn't THAT extreme. Vildeis is much more extreme, but I don't mean that he isn't that bad because Vildeis exist.
Like Ragathiel is all about avenging victims and all that jazz, but his faith did acknowledge possibility of good coming from evil origins. Its more of players who keep interpreting him differently.
And a great deal of that DID come from a poorly-worded obedience getting memed into "LOL, Ragathiel worshippers r serial killerz!" here on the boards. <_<
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Let's not forget Zon-Kuthon contributed as much to that as Shelyn did. She'd spent millenia believing there is still good in him, despite everything he's done, and in that moment...she was proven right.
It calls to mind that scene in Return of the Jedi:
Star Wars wrote:
"Now...go, my son...leave me."
"No, you're coming with me! I won't leave you here, I've got to save you!"
"You already have, Luke...you were right...you were right about me...tell your sister...you were right..."
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I know the deadline for submissions is tonight, but I'm stranded away from my computer due to a winter storm.
Could I possibly ask for an extension, please, at least to tomorrow night, so I don't spend all night trying to hammer out this character profile on my phone? :(
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Oh hey, I think I've played with Xevras in a previous Starfinder game that didn't last! Cool!
I've got the broad strokes of a concept, but I'm struggling on the details: She'd a human Sensate with the Kalistocrat Childhood background, rebelling hard against Kalistocrat strictures by dressing in black, wearing fingerless gloves and partying hard, now in need of a stable paycheck after their money's run out, but what class to play? Evolutionist? Witchwarper? Technomancer? Mystic?
