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I'm looking at playing an old dwarven bloodragers who became a master smith against his will for this campaign. He'll be using a two handed weapon. Dorn-Dergar would make sense for an older dwarf to have because of reach. Could be a last memento of his clan, brothers, mentor etc. Looking for some advice on bloodlines, backstory and how to tie it all together. I'm GMing the AP myself, so don't mind story spoilers.

Current idea is that he was part of a clan of dwarven berserkers who took upon themselves to take down (Fire?) Giants. (Giant Slayer campaign trait variation). However, they were defeated and instead of being killed, the giants forced them to forge weapons and armor as punishment until death. Alternatively he was sold into slavery and had to serve over a hundred year sentence. He was the only survivor of the group or clan. I'm open to other ideas as well.

I have not thought about how he escaped. Whether he was just let go by impressing the giants or finished serving his sentence or perhaps something else was required of him that he was temporarily released for. I'm thinking his looking to take revenge on the giants eventually.

In terms of bloodlines, I have a couple of ideas. Fire Elemental bloodline (Azer), Salamander or Dragonic. Outside of dragonic, the other two both are considered master smiths, and I'm thinking they were teaching the dwarf somehow. Could have a cool mentor like figure. Not sure how a dragonic bloodline would manifest or make sense for a dwarf to have, but close proximity to the essence of the elementals for so long could perhaps infuse him with arcane energies through mystical absorption.

He could be in Sandpoint to worn the town of the coming giant invasion, but perhaps none took him seriously and being out of coin took on the job in one of the smithies. How about an old mentor of Savah's? I believe she is a weapon and armor smith and perhaps the dwarf came to visit? Having lived somewhere around 200 years wouldn't make this impossible. Perhaps he rebuilt his old village and she learned of the master smith living in the mountains and came to learn the craft?

Character Inspiration
If anyone is familiar with the Demon Slayer manga series. There's a character there called Gyomei Himejima. When I stumbled upon the dorn-dergar, it reminded me of him, and that's where most of the inspiration is coming from. As always, I'm open to other ideas on how to portray this character outside of a bloodrager.
https://kimetsu-no-yaiba.fandom.com/wiki/Gyomei_Himejima#Abilities

do you think that a 'get out of death free' card might be a challenge in play - particularly w/ a rogue?

it might be problematic and encourage excessively risky play:

"oh, i'll go get in close with a giant [bad idea] and oh well, i'll just be back next session, whatevs."

Well the consequence of dying, is he loses his memories and won't know the party members, who he is fighting or why. Total amnesia after each death. He keeps a logbook to track information, but that can get damaged, stolen etc. Most of the information written has already faded. After resurrection, he can only trust his book, but not necessarily anyone else. I personally think that dying becomes enough of a hindrance that he wouldn't want to exploit it.

Dizn wrote:

Azlanti (Rogue) – Immortal human "weapon" created by the runelord of Greed. However, unbeknownst to Karzoug, immortality came with a cost. When killed, you always return, but lose part of your identity. After the fall of Thassilon, memories of your master were lost. What little remained you wrote in a journal. Over the years you’ve lived many lives and the more you died, the less you remembered. All that remains of your past is your journal, ancient Thassilonian ruins etched onto your body, and a Sihedron ring that you carry with you.

while this is a cool backstory, by allowing a player to choose Azlanti, they are mechanically much more powerful than the rest of the party.

Are you sure you want to do this? Maybe tell the player that the idea is cool, but for party balance they need to have a human PC, or that they need to rebalance their ability scores.

PCs background was a collaboration. Player wanted to have a character who was resurrected without memories and this is what we came up with.

The character itself is using human ability scores for balance sake, I just trapped their ancestry as Azlanti. Its pure background flavor. His curse of immortality on the other hand means he doesn't have to change characters upon death, but has to learn to deal with memory loss or amnesia.

I always make my players fill out a "10 Minute Background" [search for "10 minute background character"]

that way they develop most of the plot points and relevant NPCs. you can then connect them [or not] as you see fit.

Okay, this concept is great for creating PCs. Will probably start using it myself when I get to play as a character again. Thanks for sharing!

For your elf, I'd have that unnatural fertility be tied to a more benign aspect of lamashtu.

Elves generally don't see many children indeed, so the fact they got 4 is definitely not normal. Did not think about a Lamashtu connection, but there are multiple paths here, I think that could work. Could I change a PC into a Changeling or a half-demon without them knowing about it? I can do whatever with the sisters, but the PC herself is set on being an elf sorcerer, and not really the evil kind.

1) Concerning your Elf...

In my Runelords game, one of my players made an Elven Witch who was abducted as a child and brought to Irissen (your elf reminds me of this character for some reason). In my Golarion, Niska Mvashti is half-sister to Old Bedame (iirc the name of the hermit witch from Kingmaker).

She has settled on playing a melee fighter with support magic who is from Brevoy, Restov—which is on the other side of the map... At this point I'm thinking on doing something with her sisters rather than the character herself. To give her an arc of defeating, redeeming or rescuing her sisters during the course of the campaign. She has not seen her family for at least five years.

2) Concerning your half-orc...

The Half-Orc is easy. He could be a bastard sired by Father Zanthus during a time when he questioned his path. This could have been a catalyst as to why he adopted Nualia, as he never knew what became of his son. Sort of a second chance to do things right. Your half-orc could have tracked him down to Sandpoint to finally meet his father.
It makes it more impactful when Zanthus dies and he finds out Nualia is sort of a sibling that has killed him.

It's such an obvious connection, how did I manage to miss it?! Anyhow, he didn't want this option, so I'm back to square one. I either don't give him anything or figure out how to bring in orcs to the campaign, perhaps via the BBEG who wants more hands on deck. If his father is neither Father Zanthus nor Father Tobyn, I don't think he is interesting enough to have a role in the story, so its back to his orc-ish side.

Your Cleric/Armiger is harder to integrate for me, but I'm sure I could out something with enough time. For now, he might just be wanting to start his own order somewhere in Varisia. The hinterlands of Varisia might be remote enough to not attract unwanted attention, etc. Not an idea I would probably end up using though.

I've decided on the Commandor of the Black Arrows to be his father who was exiled from Hellknights, but left his newborn at the hands of the organization. However, not yet certain what "crimes" one would have to committee to get that kind of treatment and not a death sentence. Could have been a higher ranking officer perhaps.

Hey guys!

I'm currently at a loss on what to do with my PCs backstories and how to link them together with the Rise of the Runelords.

Half-Orc (Bard) – Born to an Orc mother and a Human father, he was mainly raised by his peace-loving kind farmer father while the more-heavy-handed mother spent most of her time roaming the lands satisfying her burning desire for adventure. Father is a follower of Desna, and the character himself is a pacifist.

Human (Cleric/Armiger) – Cleric of Asmodeus that grew up in Korvosa. An orphan who was taken in by the Hellknights of the Nail.

Azlanti (Rogue) – Immortal human "weapon" created by the runelord of Greed. However, unbeknownst to Karzoug, immortality came with a cost. When killed, you always return, but lose part of your identity. After the fall of Thassilon, memories of your master were lost. What little remained you wrote in a journal. Over the years you’ve lived many lives and the more you died, the less you remembered. All that remains of your past is your journal, ancient Thassilonian ruins etched onto your body, and a Sihedron ring that you carry with you.

Elf (Sorcerer) – Professional bodyguard and duelist. Mother is an Aldori swordlord, has three sisters (quadruplets), fey bloodline, father is a Feysworn diplomat and a planer travel spending most of his time on the First World. Was raised by her stern mother in an unknown city. As far as I understood, it wasn't an elven city, but someplace were Aldori swordlord could be present.

Azlanti character I've already figured out, since he has the most tie-in with the story. Cleric can be the child of either Viorian or Jakardros or perhaps both? His around 20 years old, so hopefully timeline wise it makes sense.

Currently have no idea what to do with the half-orc, since there are no relevant NPCs of said origin. He does have an orc brother who's a bloodthirsty mercenary, though.

The elf's father is a follower of Magdh, who was blessed with triplets or so he thought. I don't think RotR has any relevant fey creatures that could have done something to her father or mother? Perhaps a Night Hag, or witches who are after Karzoug's soul? Land of Linnorm Kings and Irrisen is full of Fey ties. Brevoy is way too far, so it doesn't make sense to use. Forgot to mention that she acted as a bodyguard to Kendra Deverin, but the job went south and has now been sulking in Sandpoint trying to figure out how to explain her failure to her mother. Her other three sisters are Aldori, magically gifted cold-assassin (been thinking Red Mantis), charismatic soldier.

Any modules, society or tales I could take a look at to help me figure this one out would be appreciated.

Best regards,
Dizn

Thanks for the guidelines guys.

We've upgraded him into a "Rogue Tomb Raider". AP has multiple artifacts that the thief could have stolen, but I think Sihedron Medallion, Skinsaw Mask or even an object for deciphering the Manifest of Ironbriar should work the best, since those don't add huge immediate benefits when wearing.

As tombs, archeology, exploration came into discussion. Another interesting option could be Corruption (Pathfinder: Horror Companion) via an artifact, monster, or location. PC could still be part of the Deverin family, and perhaps even couple hundred years old. I'd rework the rules a bit, though to make said character more playable.

The Cleric could also decide to reject Asmodeus and follow another deity during the AP.

His far too committed to playing a Asmodean Cleric at this point that a switch most likely will not happen. I can always take his powers away if he starts behaving differently and perhaps that would prompt him to change his deity.

The Lamashtu bit only last to the end of book one but maybe that is enough to get the character to care for sandpoint.

The Gambling angle and greed could help tie the villains of book 2 and 3 to make said character a target.

The big problem I see with Asmodeus is that ultimately he is an evil deity and most hero's aren't evil. It isn't impossible but ultimately the character needs a motivation to keep committing heroics and saving people that doesn't put them at odds with the party.

Also when this character become high level and thus very powerful what do they want to do with that power once the bad guys are out of the way? This isn't as big of an issue as most people don't do epilogs or victory laps but it helps to see how a characters journey might be affected by knowing what the maxed out version of that character does with their power.

It could work, it just depends how the evil devil worshipping part of that character will affect the party and plot.

If you haven't read through all of the AP I would take some time to browse through the late parts of book 2 particularly Xanesha and Ironbriar to see how you can play off of that. The damn in book 3 as well as Lucrecia. Look through Runeforge in book 5 and see how sins and sin points may affect such a character. Finally in Book six think if such a character would want to fight and ancient evil wizard tyrant and even if they do, do they just become the big bad after that.

To clarify where we are currently with his character is as follows. The character is from Korvosa. Instead of doing Student of Faith, we changed it into Asmodean Demon Hunter. They are sort of a Van Helsing type person, but more magical. His tried to be apart of the Hellknight order, but wasn't well suited because of his personality, so decided to do his own thing by hunting rogue demons and various other entities that don't follow the law. They like high stakes gambling that at best of cases leads to other owing him, which eventual leads to them joining his faith, or taking their souls. So he gambles with money, lives and everything in-between. I still think the reason for being in Sandpoint is from a vision, but he's there to kick some ass by any means necessary to get the job done and fulfill his duties.

Yeah, I really should check out the last two books, since those have the most vital information for the entirety of the AP. Its in interesting thing to consider what happens once an Evil person defeats another evil.

I have a Rogue who's from Magnimar. Is a Deverin and a self proclaimed "master thief". He wants to either have a big SECRET or be WANTED as their background.

His going to be part of either the Night Scales, The Gargoyles or the Sczarni organization. Currently he has said that he stole something from someone important that should have major consequences when found out or said person or organization is already looking to get it back. He skipped town to go visit his cousin in Sandpoint and to keep a low profile.

I guess my question is as follows, what kind of item would he have stolen in Magnimar and from who? Implying that said item should have campaign wide impact.
My currently thinking is something from the Skinsaw Cult, perhaps from Justice Ironbriar specifically or Xanesha? Most likely a artifact or a magical item of sorts.

Perhaps not RotR related, but another option could be "sun orchid elixir" from the Forever Man? However, not sure what kind of consequences that would bring.
There was also talks of wanting to be part of the Council of Thieves, but that organization has a AP surrounding it, so not sure I want to tackle said plot thread twice.

I would definitely ask the player what would be their motivation to protect what is ultimately a small coastal town.

The biggest thing you can do to make Rise a successful campaign is to have a party that bonds together over Sandpoint and it's peoples and to a lesser extent Varisia and the World at large once the threat of Karzoug is revealed.

A Cleric in Golorian would have a hard time hiding what they are especially if they cast their spells in front of people as showing their holy symbol is part of most of their casting. Asmodeus is also fairly prideful.

If you do have this character in this game make sure to keep track of Sin points from day one. While you should never look to trap a player in a gotcha or spoil their fun. Sandpoint is a peaceful mostly good town and those who do bad are often brought down by hopeful heroes.

I would say such a character is actually a better fit for Curse of the Crimson Throne tho as Korvosa is connected to Cheliax and has active Asmodeus worship.

Okay, I was actually un-aware that Clerics cast their powers by showing their holy symbol. I assume other classes have an easier time hiding their powers origin, though? I'll forward said message to my PC and see what he thinks.

Is a vision received from Asmodeus to go help the city of Sandpoint enough of a reason to be there? According to the lore, Asmodeus dislikes Lamashtu as she won't keep promises, and there are a couple of her followers in the town or nearby hinterlands.

In addition, we included a Student of Faith archetype from the Anniversary Edition Players Guide. His a small town Clergy, a woodsman and a avid gambler. I'm not sure why he wants Asmodeus as his god, perhaps it just sounds cool? He's a first timer and could not know the consequences of such a ordeal perhaps.

He chose the Elemental Domain: Abadar, Asmodeus, Gozreh, Pharasma, Sarenrae, Shelyn, Torag - are part of it. Which of these would suit a half-elf Cleric better who wants to wield fire?

I think it can work as long as he is deeply concerned with protecting Sandpoint. Maybe his family lives there, or he got a vision from Asmodeus showing it's primordial to protect the town. Or he signed a contract with the town to protect it. Or several of those.

Maybe he would like to become a Hellknight and wants to show he can restore order in a town before taking on bigger duties.

What is the rest of the party like and how do they feel about it ?

Rest of the party does not know about the Clerics involvement with Asmodeus. I wanted to keep it secret, since its an interesting plot hook for the others to find out.

1. I have a Sorcerer (been in town for about 2-4 weeks, did a job for the mayor that went south.)
2. Traveling Bard that's here for the festival and to make money.
3. Rogue nobleman from Magnimar who's currently written as a cousin of Kendra Deverin.

Hellknight thing is something I'd like for him to consider. I could make him a apprentice Hellnight, and Sandpoint is the job he has to succeed at. It also involves in killing a Demon I believe, which there are two in the first book.

I do have a question regards to what do Asmodeus faithful actually gain out of worshiping him? And I'm wondering also why did said character choose specifically that deity and not someone else? Asmodeus does deals, so I assume there's something he would want from the PC? Thinking about a crossroads devil pact to save himself or someone else etc.?

Prince of Darkness doesn't really care about mortals all that much, so I do wonder what made him like said PC?

Hey good folks.

I'm starting RotR soon as a GM and one of my players wants to play as a Cleric of Asmodeus. His new to ttrpgs and I'm new to the setting, so I'm trying to figure out how to make said character work.

Note: I'm also using the Pathfinder for Savage Worlds rulebook instead, but I'm more interested in the lore and background aspect of said character rather than the mechanical parts.

Any suggestions or pit falls for such a character for this adventure path?

Best regards,
Dizn