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*Strikes villainous pose, hands on hips, maple-leaf cape swirling dramatically.* “They laughed! They said it couldn’t be done! They said it was too cold! Leave it to the Greeks? No, behold CANADIAN Fire!”
Don't pretend the things don't happen. It's frustrating to paladins. Succubusses in, flips open notebook labeled “Ways to Drive Paladins Crazy (and Hopefully to Fall).” Adds heading: “Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss.” Underlines, twice. Adds tally mark for quantitative analysis purposes.
Likewise. Unfortunately, I've had no luck reaching out by way of other connections. :( I hope everything's alright, and in the meantime let's put this on hold, and if Poly surfaces, I'll try to herd the cats.
Unfortunately not. :( It's been a rough week, here, so I only just started reaching out to other shared contacts yesterday afternoon, and since that game is also on hiatus... I suppose it might be a few days before I hear back. I did hear that sometimes Poly needs a break and will hopefully bounce back, but I'll keep trying to see if I can reach him without being too pushy about it. Trying to give everyone space and not freak out, I figure I'll give it through this weekend before deciding that I'm just calling into the void, for now. I'm sorry that you're rather stranded, given the circumstances. We could reach out to Sensen again, see if they're feeling like they have a bit more time to flesh out a character for another game? I did end up reaching out to Ventiine a while ago, and they're not looking for another campaign at the moment. If we want to reach out to others, I trust your judgement, and/or we could open up recruitment and I'd absolutely give your thoughts equal weight in selecting new players/characters. I'd hate it if things have to fizzle out here - and like I said, I think I'll give it through the weekend for a couple of leads (hopefully), but at this point maybe it's for the best to let things go, though I'm certainly willing to do that and send up a Batsignal if I hear back with good news from Poly and/or Sensen. :/ *Fingers crossed.*
Oh, that is worrying. Like I said, I reached out, but I don't think we hang out in the same spaces outside of our shared campaigns, on the boards. Hopefully we'll hear back soon, and in the meantime I'll see if I can find another way of getting into contact.
Gah, sorry folks, I'm not helping to make sure we're all in the same place at the same time. :/ I just sent a PM. Things should be smoother now, I hope! My kid brother's visit for Hallowe'en is over, fingers crossed that my plants will settle in after being transplanted indoors, and so forth. All wings check in? *Starfighter noises.* "Pynk leader, standing by." (Or we can just get started if everyone feels up to it, without dorky Star Wars references. :) )
I eventually suspected that might be the case, and I've sent off a quick PM. Thought I would let everyone have the rest of the weekend, especially with Hallowe'en to get ready for.
Wait, really? Some people don't make it a whole production that requires days of planning? Weird. :) Actually, it's been fine, just a bit of tweaking my usual schedule, not least because I also need to rescue some plants from my community garden plot before the end of the season, and since it's the first year that I had one, that means tracking down pots and planters and such.
Can we agree that moving forward everything bad is Tabitha's mom's fault? Seconded! All in favour? Also, I decided to decided to take your advice and just start a new gameplay thread, in which I've just posted a first thing to get started. Have at it, if you'd like! :)
The morning in Limen dawns cool and grey with cloud and fog this later Lamashan morning, and the light stays wan even as the mist slowly dissipates, bursts of scattered showers intermittently spitting down cold from the heavens above. Fortunately, the common room of the Martyred Manticore – the best place in town for a traveller to hire a room and a place at the board, as the staff proudly maintain – is bright and cozy nonetheless. In the drizzly late morning, the inn is even quieter than the streets outside: apart from a few farmers and foresters indulging in a more relaxed start back home or into the woods after transacting some business in town, and a handful of travellers (some rougher-looking than others) heading up or down Rostland way, only a barmaid and the landlady, Agatha are around, wrapping up a covered dish destined for a poor soul that needs it, since no brownie or other good neighbour helped themselves overnight. Through the windows of the inn, passers-by that can no longer put off needing to brave the weather can occasionally be seen: scholars and civil servants on their way to the library or to the town hall, workers heading to the curtain wall slowly being built around the city, or to any number of businesses, and of all backgrounds. Elves, whether the more bookish, clerical sorts or the wilder resettling from further south in the Narlmarches, rub shoulders with half-orcs as well as humans and gnomes, kobolds from the Sootscale tribe, and even one or two wary lizardfolk traders from downriver, looking somewhat grumpy as the year turns relentlessly to the cold seasons. Ausra:
You arrived too late last night to at least introduce yourself in person to another Pathfinder you’ve arranged to meet in town today, a canny half-orc named Ulisha introduced to you by friends in the Daggermark lodge, who put the two of you in touch as likely people to approach the council of Helikia about establishing a new lodge for the Society in Limen. In the letters you’ve exchanged, it’s become clear that Ulisha is as paranoid as a clever, opinionated native of Daggermark ought to be, and that adding an elven voice to the petition to the leaders of Helikia, and not least to its Lady Hyalinnea, would be a shameless but effective play to said lady’s sympathies. Since there are strong druidic and fey influences on the council, Ulisha has suggested offering Helikia the first opportunity to bid on an enchanted sickle that’s come her way from an ancient druidic site she discovered in the course of her travels, as a way of sweetening the deal.
You suspect there might be more to it than that, since she’s insisted on establishing a series of code phrases, although maybe that’s the Daggermark paranoia showing. Things like, “The hawk is unhooded,” or “The path is clear for the well-prepared traveller,” or “Even the shallowest ford is slippery footing.” The rumours say that Lady Hyalinnea has spent some time with the Poisoners’ Guild, though you’d guess it was too recently for her to be much help with your personal investigations into what happened that the sister guild betrayed your mother. Still, if the occasionally alarming gardens that even a weary (but knowledgeable) traveller would notice on their way into Limen are anything to go by, and the town’s much more welcoming air than some parts of the River Kingdoms you’ve seen, she’s rather open, and might at least have some insight on recent guild and herbalistic developments. First things first, though, and you’ll have to see if Ulisha’s up, because she doesn’t seem to have surfaced yet, and it’s getting late. Tabitha:
The capital of Helikia is quite a place, from what you can tell after spending a few days here, having been tempted out in this direction after hearing of the new River Kingdom from another traveller braving the weird forests of Uringen. For now, Helikia’s idealistic Lady seems to be accepted by her people despite her lofty pretensions and her open practice of witchcraft, and you can only wonder how she does it, or if it’s bound to come crashing down sooner or later as the ungrateful masses balk against even the best guidance. Maybe there is something here that you can take back to your home-in-exile to help give the bloody revolutionaries at home their comeuppance?
The trick is getting introduced to the movers and shakers here. It’s a small town, and the council seems to be alarmingly accessible, but that doesn’t seem to extend to, well, extended interactions with those not already of their circle, necessarily. You’re putting in the work to get to know the locals that might provide an in, or at least a chance of running into the right sort of person: the herb and spell component dealers, along with those providing the prerequisites for a suitably civilized lady’s life. You haven’t run into the Lady yet, but surely it’s only a matter of time, if the proliferation of dangerous plants in gardens across Limen is anything to go by. She’s either incredibly trusting, or counting on the idea that it would be unwise to turn to herbal mischief in a town whose leaders are well-informed about the uses of plants. It’s still all very strange, and even the clear fey influence – which would surely delight the Circle back in Gralton – isn’t enough to set you at ease. There’s something – not in the water, no, but somewhere in town that sets your teeth on edge and a shadow of painful buzzing in your ears, and it seems to get stronger the closer you get to the improbable patchwork building of the town hall, whatever that means. As you ruminate over your plans for what’s left of the morning, in front of the fire or over a cup of something hot, there’s a loud thump and sudden draft as the wind catches the inn’s opening door. With a soft clash of armour accompanying their steps, two striking individuals enter in from the weather, a handsome, black-haired human man with stern, sharp-cut features, and, rather less confidently in his wake, a young elf woman whose blonde locks frame an unnervingly beautiful face, as if she were a doll or statue come to life. Knowledge (local), DC 10:
The human fellow is, of course, Kesten Garess, the Warden of Helikia. He doesn’t normally look so dour, and you get the impression that he’s not particularly keen on this visit to the Manticore. Knowledge (local), DC 15:
In addition to recognizing Kesten, you recognize Ruisxys Ververe, one of the hangers-on who’s managed to attach herself to the court of Helikia’s ruling council, as some sort of devout warrior-mage. As the locals look up and warily move towards the edges of the room as they notice the new arrivals, you remember that some of the chat in the common room last night recounted, with ghoulish relish, some sort of business in this very inn involving a werewolf running wild. It’s not that armed guests are infrequent at the Manticore, but this looks rather official. “Good morning, Agatha,” the man says tersely with a nod to the landlady, before considering the common room and booming out, with a hint of frustration, as if to suggest that he’s wasted on but resigned to this errand, “If Ulisha the Chronicler is here, let her know that the Lady and Council of Helikia are waiting to give the audience she requested.” Maybe a bit more than a hint. “I haven’t seen her this morning, Kesten,” Agatha says from behind the bar, her tone pitching up and her eyes widening as she glances towards the stairs leading to the rooms on the upper storey, betraying her unease that her inn is about to see more excitement than she would like, again.
Agh, so you don't have to hold your breath, let's say we'll give them a couple of days, and if that doesn't work out, I'll see if I can do that. Maybe around Friday afternoonish? That will be after this next busy bit at work this week, and next week things will definitely be slower, so I'll have more time, I hope, to set the mood. I do have the first post drafted and ready to go, once the technology behaves Since it's shenanigans with threads, I blame Tabitha's norn mom. ;)
Hi, you two! Frustratingly, because I created the discussion thread first, it seems that I can't post in gameplay. I'm about to see if the Customer Service goblins can help.
Thanks for your patience, you two! Would you like me to try to get a preliminary scene-setting post up by the end of the weekend? I figure there will be a bit of plotting and planning before things really take off and we need to worry at all about tactical-scale maps and suchlike, and in the meantime our characters can bounce off each other and Helikia first. But if you want to pin down backgrounds a bit more firmly first, or if life's still busy, I can absolutely maintain the holding pattern while circling on my broom (to channel a bit more of Lina). :)
No worries! Well, apart from hoping that it’s been a good busy for you. Thanks for the bullet points! Trying not to get myself too deep a rabbit hole of plots only to find out that you’d find one of the other stories more interesting. Based on how both Town Tamer and Vengeance work, and your sketch of where your background’s headed (especially that Ausra isn’t much of a city girl), why don’t we split the difference like this? Since the one feat applies to undesirables/criminals/ruffians in a particular settlement and the other to a specific foe and minions, why don’t we tweak Vengeance so that for Ausra, on completion, it applies to assassins generally? So, cold-blooded contract killers more broadly, but not your common-or-garden goon/thug/gang member? I’m brainstorming ideas to strike a balance that includes some narrative closure and doesn’t entail something that might feel like an ongoing shadow war with the entirety of the Daggermark Assassins’ Guild™. (Though some other time a Godmother type of campaign sounds like it could be a lot of fun!) Keeping the Uringen connection is fine, and we can have a nodding acquaintance with Bosk in Daggermark that developed from Ausra’s visits there as part of her ongoing investigation. (Also, don’t you hate it when trivia takes up uninvited residence in your head? There’s a part of me that thinks it was a missed opportunity that Bosk isn’t an iruxi/lizardfolk, but that’s the sort of joke that I know gets lawyers worried.) Rules lawyer! We got a rules lawyer here! Sigh. It's a lonely road, is the path of righteousness. ;) Serendipitously, today's installment of The Handbook of Heroes sagely observes, "...players are creatures of chaos. It doesn’t matter what alignments their PCs happen to have. If you give players an organized structure like a church, they will instinctively add disorder. Give ’em a kingdom and they’ll start a revolution. Give ’em a ship and they’ll stage a mutiny. Roll out a Heavenly Bureaucracy and they’ll steal the Peaches of Immortality. It’s like showing your domino setup to a pyromaniac. Shit’s going to wind up knocked over and on fire."
Hey, Tabs knows how to use swords! Just not that sword. Sorry, this one’s a matter of law/rules: “Regulations clearly state that heavy blades of the -style are to be made of 3.182 kg of steel, 152.4 cm in length, with a curvature of …” “Irregularities in the equipment of the front line can be disastrous, soldier!” XD(Rational SI units are, of course, the only choice for the forces of order.) Oooh, this is going to be fun, and a challenge. I’m really going to have to try to stretch myself to play lawful. **Don’t worry, Xys isn’t actually that kind of paladin. :) Fun with masks:
We’ll have to think of fun ways of imagining eye/face slot items. It can be really neat, too, to see how characters start to come together in unexpected ways. I have a warpriest who turned into a fashionista without my planning on it, and she’s the reason, indirectly, that Lina ended up with her killer heels. Said warpriest has family roots in the Mordant Spire, so she loves accessorizing with masks! Probably skewing more towards this than with the big Siouxsie hair of this, at least on the regular, but when she goes all out, and the latter is more her palette, generally. In terms of tagging ourselves, as much as she and I might like to think Xys looks dangerous, at least, I suspect she falls under the heading of, “Looks like a cinnamon roll, is a cinnamon roll.” Also – even more than Lina, who at least had a normal(-ish) family growing up, and so has some inkling of what it would take to make life into a fairy tale – if Xys ever slows down enough to really notice the way of the world, she’s probably in for a shock about how things actually work, and that it’s not all slaying dragons and wooing princesses and casting extravagant spells.
I'm thinking Elven Branched Spear is a better route to go. Also, it looks like Xys is using and Elven Curved Blade? Ausra doing the same as well is too much Elven Curved Blade in one place I think. Can such things be? Up to you of course, but my toes wouldn't be stepped on if you went with the curved blade too. With the right spell(s), we could even get Tabitha in on the fun, and recreate that bit of the Last Alliance scene at the start of the Lord of the Rings films. :) Also, have you had a chance to think about which story feat you might prefer? Now that I think about it, looking at the scenarios I've got to work with, there should be a fairly easy way to start working Vengeance into an emergent narrative after all from very early on, so if you've got particular ideas about how much Ausra knows for sure and how much is red herring and double-bluff and so on, I'd be happy to hear them! Spoiler in case either you or polyfrequencies want to go in blind:
The very short version would be that Ausra has one or two solid(ish) leads on a possible person of interest, and maybe some less reliable rumours about the affiliation of the person responsible, which might result in an investigation starting in Daggermark, and then leading a merry chase into the hinterlands? Alsoalso, if Ausra spent time in Daggermark as a child, is that also where she joined the Pathfinders? That might help plant an NPC or two, but we can always go with something else if that's what you had in mind for your background.
Oh, I was just offering pre-emptive apologies in case I came across as snippier than I intended. I have no objections to summoning in terms of gameplay, even when it’s cheesy. (Fond memories of Baldur’s Gate, and swarming the baddies with summons to make sure they couldn’t close with the party. Ah, simpler times.) It’s just not *me*, personally, for games where I try to get a bit more into the heads of my character, even though I can understand the advantages in terms of action economy and all that. So, again, it was just to acknowledge that if it felt like it was erring on the side of “Wow, does Q.- really hate summoning?” the answer is, “Yes.” But since I’m not the one doing the summoning, it’s not my problem! :p And being haunted by a haggy phantom seems like a very good fit for Tabitha! You do you, which, admittedly, isn’t particularly helpful if you still have a million ideas zinging around your head. The idea of Xys resigning herself to helping Ausra keep an eye on Tabitha is growing on me. A phantom is an outsider that can’t be banished, really, which lends itself to all sorts of amusing frustrations and creative solutions for an Oath vs. Fiends paladin, and if we go with Anchoring Aura, thanks, just that much more fun after Phantom Recall comes online: Status: *Teleport denied.*
Likewise, if any of those feels like fun, go for it! I’ve always wanted to try the Sylvan Trickster myself, but it doesn’t officially stack with Eldritch Scoundrel, and I’ve most often been in less adventurous games, rules-wise. (Which is to say, if you’d like, I’d absolutely be willing to try to work those two together, if a way to do it makes sense.) Oh, and getting back to Story feats, like I said, it would radically change what the River Kingdoms look like if we come after the head of the Assassins’ Guild. Which is not a problem, per se, but I’m not sure I have the GMing experience to do that story justice, and that strikes me as something that could be a good campaign in its own right. Although, combining that with if we ever get back to our Kingmaker PCs (and, if things go well, with this new batch, in time – I have half a crazy idea to maybe crib some ideas from one of the PF2 APs ), even if we never get to play it all out, we could set some very interesting wheels in motion. But anyway. Really annoying the Daggermark Assassins is absolutely no problem, and even getting the attention of the upper echelons. If we want to go with “Smilos needs to go!”, that’s a bit trickier, but we can start thinking about what that would look like. Cleaning up Bacul Gruii is maybe a bit conceptually easier, if you’re OK with a Magnificent Oh, and before I forget, since we’re doing all the favoured classes bonuses, and now gestalt, please count the other side of your gestalt as a second favoured class just for the class-specific bonus, just because (otherwise I would forget about what FCBs are in play, and ain’t nobody got time for that).
I’m afraid you’re getting a grumpy succubus / paladin / GM tonight. I’m really not into pet classes, so I’ll try to mitigate my natural antipathy as we try to figure the spiritualist out.
Phantom questions:
1) Ugh. Comparing phantoms to eidolons (and animal companions), my instinct is that phantoms can’t wear armour for the raw AC bonus, since the eidolon has the same boilerplate about “interfer[ing] with the [summoner's] connection.” That said, I think it would be reasonable to also port over the summoner’s ability to split the eidolon’s AC bonus between either natural or armour. Especially because my instinct would at least let phantoms benefit from the special abilities of any magic armour they wear (say, ghost touch when they manifest incorporeally), not least because there isn’t an “armour” magic item slot in quite the same way as the fun ones. 2) I think you’re right about dodge bonuses in incorporeal form vs. natural armour in ectoplasmic. Let’s go with that. As I read it, the Armour Bonus column in the progression chart “is the increase to the phantom’s natural armor bonus when it manifests as an ectoplasmic creature, and its [dodge] bonus when it manifests as an incorporeal creature.” So, the phantom gets the +2 from the “Starting Statistics” + the level-appropriate entry in the chart as you gain levels. 3) I’ll have to think about this a bit more, but going with the idea that the RAI is no attacks except delivering touch spells while incorporeal, my off-hand guess would be: a) ghost touch amulet of mighty strikes, yes; b) Phantom Fighter, yes, but the spiritualist takes it, not the phantom, because that’s who has the class feature, rather than being it; c) Ghostslayer, yes, but I guess it until it’s a +2 strike, it would do half damage, like corporeal creatures striking incorporeal with magic but not ghost touch. d) Magic devices, sure, so long as they’re not attacks (thinking in terms of “Would it break invisibility?”), and probably like familiars for the purpose of spell completion or trigger items. (So, UMD?) e) Aid another, yes, by distracting opponents, pointing out the next bit to grab onto, &c. 4) As you say, effectively 2 skill points per HD, unless the phantom’s Int is increased, +2 locked in by the emotional focus. 5) Weird stuff. I guess walking/levitating just a bit off the ground, since incorporeal creatures are weightless. (But in the case of phantoms, still bound by the memory of how they used to move until 9th level, I guess?) I think we want to avoid Wile E. Coyote effects, so maybe feather fall or, in such cases, the ectoplasmic possibilities reassert themselves and the phantom schlurps/spills onto the ground? 6) On a related note, I’m tempted to say that unconscious phantoms bleed ectoplasm, and can stabilize, but don’t do so automatically while lurking in the spiritualist’s consciousness: unlive by the trauma, re-die by the trauma. >:) I’m not sure, but given how Spiritual Bond works at 14th level, why don’t we go with Etheric Tether working similarly, unless it becomes clear that that’s over the top? Preventing a phantom from going unconscious seems to make more sense with the “can sacrifice any number of her hit points” than the only-if-it’s-enough-to-banish-the-thing-outright interpretation, since that naturally could call for a variable number of hp. 7) I think you’re right about your phantom’s starting statistics, and, yep, with an extra skill point since your phantom is smarter than most, and Powerful Maneuvers to replace Power Attack. Monk questions:
I trust your unchaining of the Nornkith. And, in the spirit of letting Friar Tuck be chaotic, or whatever, why don’t we let your unarmed strikes count as a suitable alignment (chaotic, in Tabitha’s case). I don’t know what’s up with the emei piercer, and while the funky sword and the urumi are pretty snazzy, I don’t think they necessarily outclass the nearest similar monk weapons, so I’m guessing it’s an oversight. Knock yourself out! :)
Ha! I think the vital statistics rolls turned out that Xys is technically just a few years older than Ausra, but since Xys led a sheltered life and is, despite drama in her background, still an airy-fairy sort of elf, poor Ausra is absolutely going to have to be the responsible adult in the room, sorry. :) As for background feats, I can’t promise anything anywhere near as polished as something official, but I’m willing to try. I would appreciate, if you take Vengeance, that maybe we not set up Janna Smilos as the BBEG, because I’m not sure I have the energy to work out the fallout for Daggermark in that case. If you would have your heart set on her, we can talk about it a bit more. Oh, and I have a rule question for you two, since I’m happy to tweak things so I can stack archetypes for Xys, but I don’t want her to be overpowered. Strictly, Sacred Servant and the Oath against Fiends both replace the standard paladin’s aura of resolve at level 8. I would prefer to go with the Oath’s anchoring aura (evil outsiders within 20’ need to make Will saves to use dimensional magic, or she can spend a use of smite to cast dimensional anchor), rather than the Sacred Servants free weekly lesser planar ally (improving to the regular and greater at higher levels). Or would that be too much?
Hmm. I would say do whatever feels right, but I guess if you’re feeling indecisive, that doesn’t really help. I will say that it looks to me that you’re leaning a bit more towards fey than hag, given the balance of the archetypes you’re looking at. I’m not just saying that because with Xys’ oath against fiends, hag-haunted looks tricky. ;) That could lead to all sorts of fun dramatics! What with Tabitha not being evil herself, and all. “So how does that even work?” “Well, she tries to keep the ghost in line, and I try to keep her in line.” XD Hopefully we’d be able to avoid something like the eventual dénouement of this bit in Hot Fuzz. Alternatively, assuming she and Xys find some sort of modus vivendi that doesn’t end with Tabitha falling to her mother’s Call, Feyspeaker could be fun to set up a scenario in counterpoint to Magaambyan Initiate where they swap spells over their career until they eventually end up like sisters in retirement, still bickering, but fondly, after x many years. What does Wilde say about sisterhood? “Women only do that when they have called each other a lot of other things first”? Sworn of the Eldest picks up the cult-y vibes in the background you sketched out, too. Feyspeaker works similarly for this, but maybe, despite coven wickedness, Tabitha actually is able to find some comfort from the natural / First World, and the clash between that and the Call is all the more tragic for it? Getting back to Nornkith and such: It's definitely something to consider after a few levels! Especially if I can port the first level abilities to unchained and not lose out on my full BaB progression!As an inveterate dipper / multi-classer (and general bad influence), to my kid brother’s and family’s unending despair, I must lend my poisonous whispers in support of this idea. To reprise my role as vile temptress, with gestalt, being more experimental with multiclassing on one side probably won’t throw off one’s core progression, especially if a dip for flavour or for versatility would liven things up. After all, there’s nothing to lose with BAB if you stick with bloodrager all the way on the other side. … Which probably doesn’t help narrow your choices down. ;)
Yep, elephants are go! And, on that note, based on what I remember about how things get consolidated there with stuff like Weapon Focus, how does this sound, especially since this sounds like what the Heirloom Weapon trait was made for? How about we patch it as follows… Heirloom Weapons: (Category: Equipment) You are trained in the use of traditional weapons wielded in your family for generations (pay the standard gp cost for such weapon(s)). When you select this trait, choose one of the following benefits: proficiency with an ancestral weapon group (e.g., those to which racial weapon familiarity applies), a +1 trait bonus on attacks of opportunity with such weapons, or a +2 trait bonus on your choice of the kinds of combat maneuver to which either Deft or Powerful Maneuvers when using such weapons. If you later gain proficiency with such weapons through levels in a given class or by a feat, you may immediately retrain this trait to either the attack of opportunity or the maneuver bonus. Similarly, why don’t we make it: Finesse Training (Ex): At 1st level, a rogue gains Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat. In addition, starting at 3rd level, she can select any one of the following weapon categories: light blades, close, or finesse weapons in any one other fighter weapon group. Once this choice is made, it cannot be changed. Whenever she makes a successful melee attack with the selected weapon, she adds her Dexterity modifier instead of her Strength modifier to the damage roll. If any effect would prevent the rogue from adding her Strength modifier to the damage roll, she does not add her Dexterity modifier. The rogue can select a second such category of weapons at 11th level and a third at 19th level. Both the leaf- and thornblades are light blades, I figure, so that should do the trick.
Sure! And plot hooks for later are always welcome. New Eris might be a bit less weird, but if you go the investigator route, we still have a neat little coven of arcane folks wandering around getting in trouble, while the natural philosopher angle can provide a bit of grounding vs. tortured changelings and head-in-the-clouds wizardy paladins. There are a bunch of Story feats that sound like they could be helpful for setting villages to right, to boot.
Oh, right. I hate alignment restrictions with the fury of a thousand burning suns! Have I mentioned somewhere that my pipe dream is a version of PF1 that makes absolutely everything into an option that can be bolted on to a few basic class chassis, like one of the ideas in the 3.0 (3.5?) Unearthed Arcana? I think I may have done, but anyway. Go for it. The spiteful bit in me is going to stick with Yuelral partly because even with more restrictive canon she works. Her paladin code, as I understand it, basically boils down to, "Nature and magic are awesome. Don't be a jerk about it." So, in the immortal words of Mean Girls, "I'm not a regular paladin, I'm a cool paladin." *Facepalm.* Oh, but with angst aplenty built in about the fun, chaotic side of magic. So a lot of longing looks cast in the general direction of fey free-spiritedness, and I've written a fey crush into her backstory / story feat, so Eldest shenanigans are still possible to set the vibe for the campaign. And given both the background sketched out for Eris' incarnation as a psychic and Tabitha's particular hag lineage, especially with gestalt to soften the blow, I figure I'll convert the 3.5 Brightness Seeker and aim for applying it to one side or other (paladin, probably) of Xys' build, so we'll have a trio of women with unnervingly, weirdly extensive memories.
Actually, I was thinking of Magaambyan Initiate , one of which I’m playing in another campaign, but which I love dearly and can easily take in quite a different direction having got a better sense for how the arcanist in general works now. It was going to be either that or an exploiter wizard anyway, so my arm's really not being twisted. The central gimmick is a bonus spell known every level (powered by reservoir points) that has to be a druid spell or a cleric spell with the [good] descriptor, and that isn’t on the arcanist spell list. So, in the interests of being as unobtrusive and helpful a GMPC as possible, and that plays well with the sacred servant paladin angle too, that’s potentially 20 healing-ish spells mostly from the druid side of things, so possibly a bit later than a cleric, but still doable, I think. I quite like blessing of the salamander, and it’s also fun to whip out a holy smite as a (not)wizard. :) Anyway, between that and paladin mercies, I think we should be fine for healing, and you can keep Eris however you want her? I’ve never played an alchemist, but I think some of my characters have clashed with them, and their bombs could get scary. On a related note, have either of you played an investigator? Would that give Eris more oomph in combat with studied strike and all that while still allowing for a heavy Int focus, especially if we can find a reach weapon for her?
All fair points! I just wanted to let all y'all know that I'm very willing to keep our options open. Since polyfrequencies is happy with gestalt, and in the interest of getting things started soon-ish, let's go with that, and the three of us for now, unless there are any strenuous objections that we should work out. We can always look for someone later, if we feel we need or want to. Ditto, layering on mythic: I can definitely see how that can go crazy, quite apart from reading other people's horror stories, so I'd definitely be happy to cap things at tier 3 (or maybe 6, for a mythic capstone), if we go that route. Thinking about it some more, for reasons(TM), now including the healing question you brought up, I'll go with Arcanist for my supportive GMPC, since the best archetype for her can let her cast CLW from jump. And that way you can stick with whatever you like for Eris' gestalt side! :) Oh, and my rough past few days have mostly been due to a particularly nasty patch of insomnia. Maybe stress, maybe some unexpected side effects of some medication - I have my annual check-up next week, so maybe my doctor might be able to rule some things or suggest management strategies.
I’m the sort of girl whose ideal aesthetic is spooky garden labyrinth, so I think that sentiment works year-round. I hope everyone's going into their weekend happier than I'm: the past few days have been rough, but I'm trying to be optimistic looking ahead! Sorry to hear about Sensen, though. I reached out to them to let them know they’re always welcome to join us later, if they end up casting around for a game in a while. After all, who knows what (or who) might come floating down the Rivers of the eponymous Kingdoms? That said, I’m happy to go forward however you two want. A small party of three, with gestalt? Or mythic? Try to find another player? A combination of some of the above? If we do a gestalt trio, looks like it might be Bloodrager/Monk, Psychic/Alchemist, and Paladin/(Wizard or Arcanist), which looks like it might be pretty wild. :)
It's definitely something to consider after a few levels! Especially if I can port the first level abilities to unchained and not lose out on my full BaB progression! 2) As an inveterate dipper / multi-classer (and general bad influence), to my kid brother’s and family’s unending despair, I must lend my poisonous whispers in support of this idea. (It is traditional to object, “Back, vile temptress!” >;) ) Anyway, it certainly sounds like an option that might be worth considering for a changeling who shall remain nameless if, at some point, she is particularly sorely tempted to heed the Call from Mommy Dearest… Not that it matters yet, but at the moment I don’t see any problem with trying to patch the nornkith archetype for the unchained monk. Oh, and dang: 2b) FWIW, I’m a huge fan of crunching out fractional bonuses, for multiclass characters (see above), so let’s put that on the table, if anyone wants it. Also, on a point related only as a matter of detail: I may have missed it, but I didn’t see that Eris had her bonus story feat? It can come in whenever, or if you’d rather plan around trying to net an achievement feat as a bonus without the story complications, that’s fine too.
Tentative first steps to setting up a play-by-post campaign... Much more to come shortly, I hope! :) |