Put detail into your alias. I find it easiest to use google docs and make edits there, then copy/paste to the profile. You can still put the posting tags into the document.
I'm okay with linking to a google doc for your character sheet as well. These characters are complicated.
And when we have to go find the source it just takes more time.
So, when you list stuff out, if it comes from a book that isn't one of the main books, list the reference (if you are using a google doc, you can actually use hyperlinks to a website, like d20pfsrd).
Traits should have the trait type listed. You're still limited to one of each category.
If you only list the skills that you spent ranks on, have a section that at least gives your total untrained bonus for skills by attribute.
@the lucky so long as the progression is no faster than the normal ranger progression. Just as with sneak attack, stscking from two classes can't allow a faster progression. for instance, 3 levels of rogue gives 2d6 sa, dipping something at 4th that would seem to give another d6, won't. It continues the progression and at 5th the 3rd d6 kicks in.
You'll need to check to see how many favored enemies you get as if you were a 15th level ranger.
@Godwyn We're reviewing the potential impact and will get back to you.
@Velthais As previously mentioned, Strange Aeons did not happen. Nothing from the AP is likely to be relevant. Please stick to the AP's that have been stated as "Broken". This may invalidate your second question as well since there is no Black Tapestry.
@Jereru We are asking for a racial story if players mess with their race attributes. This is because it is race, not personal character. Changing racial abilities implies a sub-race. The benefit of customizing racial attributes is writing up a description of the subrace. Why is the subrace different? What caused that evolutionary diversion? We will review your request for modification of the application of a WORD and get back to you.
@Redblade8 No on fractional BAB/Save.
@Cuan As DM's we needed a stopping point. To an extent we need to know all of the AP's that we are including. Even with three of us, that's a lot of work. And that's one of the major reasons we cut the AP's where we did. We feel that the AP's we are allowing provide more than enough material for developing a background and providing many adventuring opportunities with the world where it is.
Shattered Star and Jade Regent are both "sequels" that assume the prior AP was successful. Some editing may be necessary considering those prior AP's did fail.
AP's that failed:
Rise of the Runelords
Curse of the Crimson Throne
Second Darkness
Legacy of Fire
Council of Thieves
Kingmaker
Serpent's Skull
Carrion Crown
Skull & Shackles
Shattered Star
Wrath of Righteous
Later AP's have not occurred (including Reign of Winter).
Mummy's Mask wouldn't happen because of Legacy of Fire.
You'll have to go find out about the orcs and Tar=Baphon/demon hordes.
I make no excuses for my own posting rate, and offer my apologies, I know how much this can effect a game when a DM has poor posting.
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This game was set up as player driven. There are many times where Monkeygod stated players could go where they wanted, together or separately. This does change the focus from DM driven to player driven.
I personally prefer a sandbox game that is player driven. In my own game worlds I like to operate in something of an event tree. I will have a primary story arc, and several side plots and stories ready for use. Players are presented with a fork in the road. If my event tree says they need to meet a centaur to be offered a quest, it doesn't matter which fork they take, they're running into the centaur. And thereafter that centaur will now be locked to the fork they chose. Players decide they want to go off on an unexpected tangent, I present offers of quests, side plots, and wil also move a clue to help the players get back to the primary story. But this style is based on players stating what they want to do.
Player driven:
Player: "I want to go look for information about the duke."
GM: "How do you plan to do this."
Player: "I guess I'll go talk to people at the inn first."
GM: "When you walk into the inn you see..."
GM driven:
GM: "You realize that you need to learn more about the duke."
Player: "I roll diplomacy to gather info."
GM: "After spending an afternoon at the local inn, you learn that..."
Notice who's deciding where the player goes?
Other than brief preparation events or tactical choices, I discourage (strongly) players that want to go solo. Go play skyrim on your x-box if you don't want to be part of the group.
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My personal viewpoint is this:
The game is too open-ended. while the setting of world is established, the group was specifically not provided an overriding goal or mission.
Players were effectively encouraged to not act as part of a single group.
This means that instead of one game with three DM's it quickly became multiple 'games' in a shared universe. And with variable speed between GM/players, those separate 'games' would likely never be able to act together again.
For instance, one 'game' spends a couple of posts to cover the Absalom to mainland trip while another spends a couple of week's on the trip. Right here we now have two 'games' that have lost time sync by about a week IC.
Possible solutions:
1) Scrap the game. I personally would rather not, and I hope others feel the same.
2) A partial reboot. Change a couple of presumptions.
2a) Change the individual drive and keep everyone as part of a single group.
2b) Change the sandbox to a quest mission.
3) Ask the players for their ideas and go with the majority.
Lian - The Blessed Cup, Absalom
Loc - enroute to Mechitar, Geb (@ +1 week)
Karen - Docks, Absalom, enroute to Almas, Andoran
Matsuoka - The Blessed Cup, Absalom, last post 9/6
Mugmuff - The Blessed Cup, Absalom, last post 7/25
Ludvic - The Blessed Cup, Absalom, last post 7/11
Anastasia - The Blessed Cup, Absalom, last post 6/22
When the horizon is 13 miles away, and ships travel 2-3 mph (let's say 3), assuming the trailing ship can make 5 mph, it'll be six hours before the trailing ship is only one mile behind. You may roll profession:sailor, DC 15 to gain this knowledge, or if you come up with something else, DC 20. Success means you can retcon casting mage armor now.
Karen finds a board near the dockmaster's with ships currently in port and their listed destinations.
Each is drawn on its own small poster with a listing of the dock number for the ship.
Sweet Destiny to Katheer, Qadira leaving on the evening tide, 330 miles. *Entry visa required beyond dock district.
Cool Winds to Sothis, Osirion leaving on the morning tide, 260 miles. *Travel warning!
Leaky Lover to Katapesh, Katapesh leaving on the morning tide, 625 miles. *Travel warning!
Oar Else to Niswan, Jalmeray leaving on the evening tide, 725 miles. *Entry visa required beyond dock district.
Rare Reward to Oppara, Taldor leaving on tomorrow's evening tide, 290 miles. *Entry visa required beyond dock district.
Stately Parody to Almas, Andoran leaving on the evening tide, 350 miles. *Entry visa required beyond dock district.
Fanta-sea to Westcrown, Cheliax leaving on the morning tide, 1200 miles. *Entry visa required beyond dock district.
- then onto Corentyn, Rahadoum 360 miles. *Magic restricted!
- then to Azir, Rahadoum, 500 miles. *Magic restricted!
Classy Ream to Magnimar, Varisia leaving in two days, morning tide, 2800 miles. *Travel warning!
If none of these destinations are acceptable, Karen could look to charter a boat.
A baseline speed for ships is 2 miles/hour operating 10-12 hours per full day of travel along a coast as the ships will generally anchor at night. Ships traveling more than 15 miles from a coast will sail 24 hours per day.
Most of you probably died before these social changes started occurring. Consider this free know:local.
The world is a much more grim environment than mainstream pathfinder. Paranoia is a common emotion. Many cities have increased patrols to respond to flash mobs, in addition to responding to a potential incursion of whatever evil is taking over that corner of the world.
This is also one of the reasons we're taking a more conservative view on international transportation.
People are scared. That or fatalistically resigned. Consider that many famous adventurers have all met their end, some gruesomely.
There are still areas of the world, even within some nations, where the news is slow enough, or the events distant enough, that people carry on normally with the thought of "not me, not us." The populace of Absalom generally understands the concerns with the influx of refugees. The island status has many believing they are safe. However the docks are much more heavily patrolled now.
Until the PC's start making a name for themselves, they will frequently be greeted with distrust and fear.
1) Find the pilgrim to gain legal access to the ISA with boon.
2) Sneak into the ISA.
3) Go through the slow process of getting a visa at the embassy.
4) Go around the ISA, probably through Varisia.
5) Do something else.
Initially this game was described to be very much sandbox style with an allowance for characters to not have to be a group of adventurers.
Sandbox relies on players making decisions and GM's providing the game world response.
AP's are not sandbox, the players are responding to GM delivered options and descriptions.
IF you like the idea of going in the direction you want to go, then players need to be much more active in proactive posting to give us something to work with. This tends to be much more "off the cuff" because if I detail a bunch of information for the worldwound and the players head off for the desert...
So I also see at this point, do you want to keep it sandbox?
Do the players want to remain independent of each other or join up as a group?
In either case, let us know what part of the world you want to go to and we can work on providing more detailed world data.
We can go with the 23. It's always been my premise that an honest attempt at roleplay will only enhance a die roll. Whatever you come up with will be considered and a modifier applied to the linguistics result.
Strike up a conversation that takes place in the Blessed Cup before everyone heads out.
Lian
The dwarf is incoherent as he tries to speak several words at the same time and only ends up sounding like a mouthful of marbles. He hastily takes his arm from you and steps back into his own line with a furtive glance towards the embassy officials.
As such, we are relying on the players to decide what direction they want to go in. We'll continue to provide information IC through NPC's and CNN, but we're letting the players do the driving.
Our railroad has been delayed due to a shortage of ballast.
The triumvirate has been discussing the commentary regarding allowing a third word for the cost of three gifts.
Our concern is that the selection of words may be for the benefits inherent with selecting some words over others.
As such, we'd like to know who is considering selecting a third word, which words your character would like to have, and why you are looking at those three words.
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In addition, we will initially be selecting six players. Other players will be alternates and may be extended invitations if we determine that we can handle a larger party, or to fill in gaps for players that go MIA.
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Each of us has different portions of the character that we focus on. I personally look for the level of optimization. I prefer PC's that are not focused into narrow circumstances where they will dominate. I prefer to see characters that can fill one role well, and at least one more role adequately. As such, when we state that the even level feats may not be combat feats, I am more impressed with characters that select feats that build a more versatile character rather than feats that are designed to optimize the primary role. But that's just me.
I also like to see when players take the time to show where and how values were reached, for instance, how did that +25 skill get to +25? What feats, class abilities, etc are used? I find it a plus when reviewing characters if I don't have to reverse engineer the numbers. But again, that's just me.
@stormcrow27 Would you please consider something else for your potential signature item (singular)? A common plot device is the quest to find an item, and/or recover a stolen item. Not so easy with a tattoo.
One tidbit that seems to be getting forgotten is that the premise is that you were a mortal, died in the failure of an AP, and given a second chance. You've been given godlike powers.
Being a god. A reborn god. A reincarnated god. A fragment of a god. The long lost eternal lover of a god. Child of a god. Parent of a god. Emissary of a god. Herald of a god. Sibling of a god. <insert synonym for any of the above here> of a god.
Is a no. This does not fit being new to godlike powers. This does not fit discovering how to become a god, if you so choose.
We are not necessarily looking at every background yet. If someone has something that isn't going to be okay, we're not going to jump all over that until we start going through applications.
We are addressing comments and questions.
That someone else has 3rd party material in their character doesn't make it okay for you to. That just means you both will either not be selected or asked to make a change.
After Monday we'll start looking at characters since that was the deadline provided.
@The Emerald Duke: Way of the Wicked is not a Paizo AP. Nor is it an AP that is included in Ruins of Pathfinder (which is linked in the first post). Probably because we already said no to 3rd party material.
@pinvendor: Without sounding like a broken record. It doesn't matter where the god comes from. You may not be a god reborn, rebirthed, lost and then found, or any other incarnation thereof. Is that clear enough? Player created gods would need to be submitted for approval and inclusion into the existing pantheon.
By extension, if gods have been missing, you still can't be them, reincarnated, reborn, or any other method imaginable. The only relation to a god you have is you may or may not have worshiped one, still worship one, might have been killed by one, and you know you were given a second chance at life by one.
I was curious about previously existing gods, especially ones that vanished (such as Amaznen), fell into obscurity due to worshippers being destroyed (Peacock Spirit) or straight died (Aroden, Curchanus, Acavna).
We're sorry, but dead gods are dead. We are not looking to having characters that are reborn or reincarnations of gods.
Vrog Skyreaver wrote:
DM Fnord, I see you posted pretty much right after I added my build to my above post. Quick question: Have you guys decided how the defensive powers work (like walk between the rain)? I purchased a mithral shirt, but I will swap it out once I know how my defense will be handled. Thanks!
Many of the words and gifts will be specifically adjusted as they are selected by players. This doesn't mean we want a bunch of requests just to see what the conversion looks like. We're working to make sure they are balanced to each other, don't overly break the game, but remain powerful.
For Walk Between the Rain Is adjusted to read as "You have an armor bonus of +9, You cannot be hit by anything not driven by a purpose unless you allow it; falling objects will never strike you unless some will to harm you set them in motion. Traps meant to hit an intruder have a chance to hit you. Armor and shields don't benefit you." A mithral shirt isn't providing any benefit to you. Random falling objects will not hit you, but traps may still apply as they are passive, but still designed to hit someone.
Nikolaus de'Shade wrote:
Also - as part of buffing my race to 20 RP I wanted to take Soul Seer. (Have deathwatch permanently) - it's limited to Outsiders only, but I'm playing a reincarnated goddess of death/endings in a human body - so its immensely fluffy and appropriate to the character, but not mechanically permitted. Will the GM's allow this for fluff's sake or not? :)
Use of ARG is problematic as it is. Racial modifications must be legal according to ARG. This includes a constant deathwatch. It is within the realm of possibility to have deathwatch as a spell-like ability within the ARG rules.
Devon Prissault wrote:
While you're working on questions, maybe you could think about this one, too?
** spoiler omitted ** <Down graded Drow Noble>
Since any use of ARG is assumed to be an entire group of people, and knowing how hostile drow are to each other. How and why would other drow clans allow such a crippled clan to continue to exist if their nobles were only half as capable? We need more information about why you would rather have half a drow noble over a better than typical drow.
Sedelion Deighstalach wrote:
1) How are we doing HP for comapanions (currently she will have 5d8)?
2) For the 4th (and subsequent) level stat boost, it says to raise by +1... given PCs are getting +2 for level 4, will animal companions get a similar extra stat point, or are we sticking to the normal progression plan?
We are still looking at the specifics on this. At this point we are likely to provide some boost. It will not be as extensive as the PC's get.
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Ash.. We do need more than one sentence to describe your branch of half-elves. And no VMC.
I did not have that many rogue or wizard levels in my prior life, and the last option isn't legal as I don't qualify for arcane trickster with only 1 level of wizard.
for my 9th level, I can progress in any legal fashion, I am not required to continue into arcane trickster. This is part of the second chance.
Also, it is noted that players may use the ARG to make some changes to an existing race.
PLEASE NOTE: This does require you to provide a brief (a few paragraphs) background on your particular branch/clan/off-shoot/subrace/etc.
If you have read through the Godbound rules, you'll notice they have greatly simplified hit points and damage, among other things.
You will want to have this noted on your character sheet for reference. Also, since this part is an adaptation, the rules may be changed.
Godbound attacks:
Where Godbound alters HP it is in HD. For instance, a godbound powered attack might do 3d6+2 damage. The table on page 20 shows that each d6 is rolled and compared to the table for damage, the +2 is added to one roll.
1d6 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6 well that's 2 points
1d6 ⇒ 2 and another point
1d6 ⇒ 3 and one more point
So I did a total of 4 points of godbound damage.
(Here's where the conversion comes in)
Each point of godbound damage is a full HD of damage. So a Barbarian with 10 HD and a wizard with 10 HD both lose 40% of their hit points.
In the Godbound system, characters typically have 10 hit points, so taking 4 points of damage would have been significant. We wanted to convey that same comparison across the conversion.
Keep in mind godbound damage effectively has a cleave effect as well. This makes it particularly nasty against low level hordes.
Hit points and abilities:
Godbound Gifts that provide hit points will effectively give you a full HD of hitpoints. This does NOT change your level or other HD driven abilities.
Gifts that give bonuses to abilities simply provide a +2 to the stat. For instance alacricy would give a +2 to Dex.
Validk doesn't have as many posts, but is in a similar vein, he's got a history.
What I was speaking to, was those individuals that were wanting to know about picking words and may not have yet considered where they were before.
Most often, when a player makes a character above 1st level, they only have a very rough idea of a background, they build the character, pick their options, then build a background to fit the character sheet. We are asking for hte background first.
What you were in your past life didn't have godbound powers. And since we're asking about your past life, your background, discussing which godbound powers you want is premature.
It's like asking if you can have a specific feat before you decide what your concept is. No one feat should have so much impact.
Looking at the godbound powers and deciding that you want a martial character or a caster is fine. Hopefully by now you've read through godbound and know that some sort of conversion has to take place just because of how damage, hp, saves, etc are handled in the two systems.
We've been going through the godbound powers and making adjustments to how they work, some may not be available or have greater changes to make them work in pathfinder without breaking pathfinder.
But that's a later date. First, how did you fail in trying to save the world?
As an example:
Validk lived and worked in Korvosa, when the troubles began, he left his small bookshop and fought in the resistance. But it was too no avail, within the ruins of Scarwall, Validk and his band met their end. Even his vaunted powers of the arcane were not enough to defeat the evils within that ancient fortress. When Validk woke in the stable, he felt diminished, while he was given a second chance, he realized that his spell casting was greatly diminished.