Its hard to even comprehend how damaging something like the Shaping must have been... I mean like, its potentially a mass extinction event even if the most obvious things survive.
I'm fine with foraging being extremely difficult. Between the undead that seem to pop up en masse in places and other horrible things, as well as any lucky survivors (however temporary) I imagine that a lot of what even survived the shaping has already been scavaged if its even marginally useful to normal folk. Besides, going on quests for a specific plant or something is kinda awesome?
I thiink I settled on having Maria worship Amus, considering I imagine her having a more generalized knowledge in religion and considering that Amus leaves one the most open to explore the entirety of creation, especially in regards to deific aspects, Maria would tend towards considering Amus as the deity she worships, but... yeah.
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Considering how likely it is my character will focus on alchemy related feats and advancements that significantly reduce crafting times, I don't think I'll bother too much with spontaneous alchemy; though I wouldn't totally disregard it.
After reading the foraging rules, I imagine that foraging for herbs uses the RAW rules for that? (at least as far as the "special rules" aspect goes)
Indeed, I assume that we'd have to reevaluate those particular class features... And if the Artifice domain can be replaced, well, that would be nice as well! Mind you, I have a feeling that mending may prove useful in this campaign?!
Ah, it doesn't replace that feature! Its the subdomain- it's here. Might interest you!!!
I figured; just thought I'd be helpful and point it out, I know the GM is plenty busy enough. Its interesting thinking about what could be a decent class feature there... :)
I'd also worry about the fact that one of your class features as a Forgemaster gives a feat thats banned from the game, unless you've already talked about that with the GM; maybe you can come up with an alternate class feature. I also imagine you'd be able to use the Smith custom domain instead of the regular artifice, given how well it fits with the identity of the archetype.
The primary goal of traits is backstory-driven, not really mechanical, after all.
As for guided, I don't think that exists in Pathfinder- I'm relatively sure that's a 3.5 thing. Naturally the GM can port it, but Paizo did not. I could be wrong, though.
Traits can be found here, and a guide to them here. You select two, or three if you take a drawback, but they cant be of the same type (combat, social, faith, magic are the primary ones). More than happy to help you select a few if you PM me.
I mean, when it comes to optimization, there's a pretty balance between "character concept" and "seventy +1's to keep track of". I think perfectly min-maxed characters are incredibly boring both to make and play (and usually only min-maxed based on whatever the rules system considers important, not the GM), but its also good to get your character as far away from being MAD as possible, because it feels bad to do a lot of things poorly. Of course, that's also class-dependent, and in this specific game the essence mechanics and the feat-tax rules do a lot to make characters that would otherwise struggle (especially given how feat-heavy ranged builds in particular are) possible and as fun to play as they should be, even if they aren't optimized.
I'm just lucky the Investigator has an archetype that almost entirely negates the need for charisma :P Archetypes and other decisions (Lore Mystery Oracle comes to mind) that allow your characters to be more SAD are some of my favorite.
As for a Dex Cleric, the ideal thing would be to go for the Agile weapon enchantment, I think. That alone fixes a lot of the issues non-rogue melee Dex builds have and essentially substitutes a bunch of feats- not entirely sure how that works in the essence system but I imagine a mix of ?air? or similar essences would be able to produce such an enchantment?
(Honestly, I'm having a fun time just navigating the wiki. Its so well put together- I'd have to try something similar for my campaign setting, I'm just horrible at organizing :P)
Yeah, apparently especially as someone who participates in Alchemy theres a dragon-phoenix? that's basically the origin of alchemist fire? Thats rad as hell.
I knew about the events, but not the relations to the deities; stories about anyone around the Basalt after dark becoming undead and such. Pyrae sounds like it was a s&#~ty place to live even before it was essentially destroyed, which fits perfectly. Thanks for the additional information!!
Thank you! I was looking for this but struggled to find it; thats perfect and a great solution!!! So the family is from Haemil but has lived in Pyrae for generations. Awesome!!
I just picked where I figured the character could be from, and someone like her brother (who is shady af, just not from Maria's perspective) in particular. Yall are amazingly helpful with this stuff :o
Ah, I didnt see that reccomendation! I figured I'd keep a stockpile just in case- I've been on campaigns where not having a good chunk of change screwed us- I could probably invest at least part of it into generic materials then. I'm not the most familiar with the alchemy rules compared to the other crafting rules (I've played a witch, thats the closest I've gotten) but I'm reviewing them as I figure this character out. Buying a good amount of raw material seems like a good idea and a weight-efficent use of gold. Probably also grab a masterwork chain shirt instead of studded leather then. Thanks for the advice!!
(Actually, now that I think about it, I'm awfully close to a mithral chain shirt... hmmmmm. I dont imagine I'd be able to just buy one of those, though, so I should probably just spend my money)
(Oh wait between traits and masterwork I dont need to worry about proficency I can just grab a chain coat thats rad as heck)
I'm a bit late to this party, but I read this yesterday, saw everything, and just... had an idea for a character that I couldn't put down. Even if its for naught, I really enjoyed making this character, hot damn. Obviously incomplete, let me know if there's anything major I missed or any questions you have...
Actually, a question from my end. I kinda arbitrarily picked Pyrae as a place of birth since its a place an Investigator might have come from, at least from a surface level glance of many of the locales. Let me know if any of this contradicts some aspect of Pyrae culture or whatnot, and if theres a better place for Maria to be from.
Full Name: Maria Notburga Riedgasse (I bet its not hard to figure out where I'm from :p)
Backstory and Personality:
After the death of her father Reinhardt when she was sixteen and the death of her mother Hermine less than a year later, custody of Maria fell to her brother Edgar. Regarded as unfit for independent life on account of her fragile disposition by her parents, it fell to Edgar, only two years her elder, to take of his eccentric sister and her numerous bizarre needs. Yet she was brilliant when it came to the reactions of the various powders and solutions she tinkered with, and soon it was her work which Edgar was able to pay debtors off with. The sister he once resented became a lucrative asset to him, provided he kept her content and out of public view.
Maria was more than aware of her brother’s exploitation of her work, but provided he generally kept her in good care and left her to her work, she was content with the situation, allowing him to manage their household. Yet as time passed, she began to expand to assisting various wealthy patrons with alchemical remedies, investigations (it was claimed she could identify a single footprint of an individual in a busy street), and making a brief stint as a research assistant. Her reputation for her success was matched only by her reputation as being socially incompetent and prone to outbursts, as well as her strange requests for working conditions.
Maria’s only close relationship has been to her brother, and they became separated during the Shaping, when Edgar and Maria were away from their home in Pyrae visiting the Earthenwork for some business of Edgar’s; when the king transported those survivors, Maria did not find her brother among them. She brought with her a decent sum of money, her alchemical supplies, rations, and a silver-hilted rapier decorated with etchings of vines and roses that has been passed down her family for generations, according to her mother.
Maria values straitforwardness above all else, and struggles with spoken figurative language (however, in writing this is less a struggle for her; she can understand figurative language, she simply needs to expect its use to pick up on it). She dislikes communicating unless directly beneficial. Having little experience with money, Maria may be less charitable and instead be simply naïve, but she has little attachment to money she does not need. Her brief experiences with violence and the books she has read have led here to a black and white morality, where brutal force is justified against those harming others but completely indefensible against the innocent; both being ambiguous at best.
Appearance:
Maria is paler than many due to spending most of her life indoors; her straw-blonde hair disheveled and prone to sticking up and about even when kept in a tight bun. Her blue eyes are somewhere between wild and tired, constantly looking about from beneath low-hanging lids and above deep, dark bags. Her nose is pronounced with a large bridge. She has scarring above her right breast and on her right forearm from a chemical mishap.
For now, I have a link to the detailed sheet right here that I'll get ported over to this site tomorrow at some point. This really is an interesting world you have here!!! (If you hover over feats and othersuch things it'll show the descriptions as copy pasted from the srd)
I'm open to either. The forums are generally more navigable if we want to look back at older posts, however. That's the primary advantage I see of them.
I suppose I'll post anything here till theres a discussion thread, but I'm really excited! Looking forwards to what everyone does. I'm a bit worried since my character is combat... borderline nonfunctional? Until level 3, when it goes into nutty territory. If I'm sneak attacking its fine though, and Eevi has more utility than JUST combat so. Yeah. Excited to see what this ruin is all about!
Bah! Not again! I wrote Woodward's backstory down but forgot to save it and paizo deleted it! *Cries*
Ah, damn, thats the WORST. That and formatting your entire character sheet for your alias and forgetting to copy paste it into a doc or something and losing the whole thing because it decides to time out or whatever.
Bah! Not again! I wrote Woodward's backstory down but forgot to save it and paizo deleted it! *Cries*
ah, damn, thats the WORST. That and formatting your entire character sheet for your alias and forgetting to copy paste it into a doc or something and losing the whole thing because it decides to time out or whatever.
Is being particularly religious common for this setting, or is it more a cleric/if you want to type thing? I'm imagining it isn't necessary to give Eevi developed/complex religious views, so I'm handwaving that for now.
So out of curiosity, since I didnt see it in rhe campaign info, whats the nature of the party gonna be exactly? I mean I take it its some sort of expedition/exploratory force, but if theres any more info I'd love to have it to help make my character's backstory cohese with the campaign better.
This certianly looks interesting- I'll give an application a go, should have one up later today. Thinking a rogue (scout) halfling girl who's used to and prefers the wilder edges of the new colonies, challenging herself with adventuring further inland than most, only recently being mature enough to do so successfully. She's helped keep up defenses around wherever she lives, and always hopes to find something cool/interesting, like a waterfall, ruin, or wild animal. Probably chaotic good to reflect her youthful positivity and rough & tumble frontier mindset. Living in a colony at the fringes of civilization tends to make civilization's demands all the more chafing, yaknow?
This is a different than I'd initially thought, but I also didn't take the holidays into account when I'd first put this up. As I've been thinking about it, this seems like a good solution to keep us from starting and then losing momentum to the Christmas break.
Yeah, good thinking; and it gives everyone involved a chance to figure everything out.
Echoing the sentiments above, I wish everyone luck. Tough competition!!!
It’s just that here we are overthrowing a kingdom and building a new one. A certain level of intelligence and charm is needed. Especially when playing as a hated minority with the symbol of an outlawed god on his hands.
Oh, certainly, but characters will still make mistakes; heck, thats how the campaign starts. Getting out of those situations is a big part of the fun.
Granted, being absurd isn't gonna fit the campaign, but failing bluff or disguise checks is probably gonna be an issue for a few of the characters.
Also, even if I dont get in I intend to follow this. So many cool characters.
And mechanically this lets him do something outside of combat. It’s no fun when you need to sit out of the very conversation because of Cha being low.
IMHO, one of the best, most entertaining, and rewarding things you can do as a low charisma character is join in conversations anyway. Even if it does tend to lead to bad outcomes- a low charisma character probably couldnt stop themselves from interjecting at a bad time anyway. I mean, it depends on why their charisma is low, of course, but...
Hey, so I decided I wanted to update Yehlara's backstory given the new information about how recent the takeover by House Darius, your question, and just a general "I think I could do better". So uh, here it is.
Backstory:
Yehlara was born about 20 years before the House Darius took the throne, though she remembers little of the society that was before. Her parents, Talathel and Merisielle, prospered under the new regime, and raised their only child to fear the dark past into which she was born, as any good citizen of Talingarde would. For years, Yehlara’s childhood was fantastic, absent of any angst and full of opportune fulfillments; she spent her time learning the properties of plants from her mother, while her father taught her rhetoric and maths. She was, by all accounts, a bright and happy child, learning at every chance she could and happily awaiting the day she could put what skills they taught her to use.
However, it was the discovery of arcane talents that truly captivated Yehlara, and she began to dedicate herself to its study. Her parents, initially excited and happy for her, began to worry when long nights of study became days, locked in her room leaving only to eat and occasionally interact with her parents. While she seemed no worse for the wear; as happy and passionate as ever, the absence of their daughter from their lives drove Talathel and Merisille to a deep grief; and, one day, when she claimed she was too busy to come with them, they broke her door and saw the fruits of her research; a shadowy, dark face, coated in shadow, whispering to her, a scorpion on her lap comfortably, and an angry glare on their daughter’s face. They were furious; the old ways were vile, how could Yehlara dare touch on them? But their fury did not ‘correct’ her, but enraged her; how could her passion for knowledge be wrong? How could they have the audacity to be angry at her, when it was her who was the injured party?
That was a turning point. There was little they could do to stop her; Yehlara was too old, and too strong-willed to back down to any scolding they gave, to any warning or explanation of how this would lead her back to the old way. She did not care. Indeed, she realized; if this, something which made her happy and wise and stronger than even her parents, was part of the so-called ‘old way’, what else could she learn by delving into the old histories, studying the old gods and their ways? Feeling they had no options left, her parents gave word to the authorities; but even they did not know how deep into old lore she had managed to go, through obtaining scraps through underhanded means or communing with the very shadows that gave her power. On evidence of this, and to her parent’s horror, Yehlara was chiefly charged with heresy after refusing to denounce her ways and instead proudly proclaiming her superiority to those trying her, a crime which could only be punished by death; though evidence of her consorting with dark powers and a deep blasphemy were also made plain. Embittered and determined, Yehlara has been sent to Branderscar to be burnt in only a few days- but she has bigger plans.
If we are playing with Leadership (in which case, wow, this is rare) you'll want to take the Vile Leadership feat instead of the regular one- you probably know that, but just in case.
We're getting pretty off topic but this is an interesting discussion thats kinda relevant to our characters so imma just put this in a spoiler:
Personally, one of my favorite villains, at least from popular media, is Solas from DAI and now DA4 because... he's not a bad guy even though he's the antagonist. He's by all accounts a hero who sees no option besides doing something monstrous to fix the awful world he was forced to create.
Which is weird because as much as I like anti-villains I have a strong disdain for the "they must die for the greater good" played strait like we see in say, the MCU version of Thanos, because usually they're just genocide monkeys trying to legitimize themselves. Hitler aint a compelling villain, people needa stop.
I don't think Yehlara is entirely certian on what she wants to do, but in more abstract terms, she wants to continue exploring the Shadows that seem to be the source of her power and to restore what she feels was the might Asmodeus brought to his followers; she would probably try and join any Asmodean organization and try and restore the old faith to Talingarde, by what means become availible. More concretely and immediately, she's likely to try and take some revenge on her parents for betraying her, though she has yet to decide what that really means.
In short, she wants to gain power, put what she thinks of as powerful back in charge, and be allowed to mind her own buisness and study instead of having to deal with these stupid good-doer restrictions that only hold her (and everyone else) back.
In a sense, Yehlara's main modivation is to fulfill the potential she feels she has, and eliminate those that get in the way, including her parents and the society that was created in her own lifetime. To her, its an obstacle to overcome- she has so much to do so she must get this out of the way or she will be wasted.
Kasit wrote:
Got to say that I’m glad to see a recruitment for this where the PCs aren’t “lol lulz” evil.
Hard same. I feel the potential of evil campaigns is squandered by your chaotic stupid types, when they can explore entire new types of stories. I myself love a good antivillian, though a more straitforward evil type works wonders as long as all violence is sensible and not senseless.
Given how old Yehlara is being an elf, and assuredly her parents being old as well, I assume they participated in the overthrow of the Asmodeus-worshipping nobility? Or was this a more behind the scenes move? Either way thats what I'm assuming how my backstory would actually be functional, and makes Yehlara's turn to darker powers make more sense- she was alive when it was still there, ablit a child and doesnt remember all that much.
Born to a relatively well-off elven family, Yahlara's life was once a pleasant one- taught her mother's skills as an Apothecary and raised to be an upstanding citizen of Talingarde, Yahlara embodied her parent's hope for a peaceful and prosperous future. Yet, in flickers of the night lanterns, Yahlara saw a great darkness- one that was no simple absence of light, but seemed to swallow it, leaving her cold and uneasy. For many years, she feared this, confiding in her parents a deep superstition and paranoia. It was their response that enraged her- a dismissal of her fears which left her feeling infantalized and resentful. It was in these darker emotions she came to realize that the darkness was not some beast hunting her, but one following her, and in time and study she came to understand it, and with further time, gain power from it. The shadows carried with them knowledge, knowledge of a god of great Power, the First, and in her darkening mind Yahlara came to desire this power. However, her increasing attention to the shadows and angry glances and glares directed at her family made her activities all but obvious to her parents, and, when their reason failed, they turned her in to the guard. Now, be it her parents will or not, Yahlara has been convicted of Heresy, refusing to renounce the shadows that taught her so much and the Prince who promises power.
Feats: Extra Hex
Alertness (from Familiar)
Yahlara's familiar is a greensting Scorpion she calls Ket
Her traits are the Heresy Campaign trait and Bruising Intellect, which lets her use her intelligence modifier instead of charisma for intimidate checks.
Physically, Yahlara is pale, black haired, but her noticeable feature is her piercing amber eyes. She used to be much more composed and less intimidating, but has become increasingly hostile-looking over the years.
Number Stuff:
Hit Points: 9
Armor Class: 11
Touch: 11
Flat-footed: 10
Seems like a good chunk of people have already expressed interest, but I've been looking for a campaign thats not already started and seems interesting, which this one is. New to PbP but not Pathfinder (though my DM's have been weird). I can play every day including weekends, probably multiple posts per day if reasonable, unless my arm falls off or something, in which case I'll let you know after the bleeding stops.
My character concept is a lawful evil Elven Witch who worships Asmodeus, shadow patron, whole nine yards. Probably have her arrested for Heresy; seems fitting. Putting the 18 in intelligence and 8 in charisma, and I get...
Which is... wow, better than I expected. I'll have a character sheet and backstory in a jiffy, though I understand if the people who posted ahead of me will have some priority. Probably aiming for a somewhat simple narrative- a girl who was born into a typical but well off family, who's arcane abilities and their origin drove them to a darker path. Heck, she was probably turned in by her parents- interesting hook for maybe some revenge narrative, if there's ever a lull in the main story (of course, thats all up to you). Let me know if you have any concerns or anything, and hopefully I'll have something more substantial by tomorrow.
